Sleep plays a vital role in maintaining good health – how you feel throughout your day is influenced by what happens while you’re sleeping.
If spending your nights tossing and turning, counting sheep, and feeling no closer to sleep as the seconds tick by sounds all too familiar, it might be time to take the next step in your journey to a restful slumber.
After all, not being able to sleep could be indicative of something more.
“Sleep disorders are conditions that affect your ability to sleep well, and without diagnosis and treatment you can expect your restless sleeps to continue. For example, someone suffering from narcolepsy may experience excessive sleepiness, and without help the condition doesn’t magically disappear,” explains Dr. Avinder Minhas.
The first step in finding a solution to your sleep challenges is a doctor’s referral to the Surrey Sleep Clinic and Laboratory.
Sleep Clinic
The sleep clinic features a combination of physicians offices and consultation services. For more rigorous testing, patients are directed to the sleep laboratory.
Sleep Laboratory
With six bedrooms, this is where testing and treatment occurs. Here, patients will spend the night for overnight testing and observations of breathing, brain waves and heart rate, for example.
A technician is in attendance throughout the night, ensuring you’re safe and that the wires for testing remain intact throughout your sleep.
Two case studies
More than simply feeling refreshed, properly diagnosing sleep disorders is paramount, Dr. Minhas says, recalling two patients suffering from sleep apnea. While central sleep apnea occurs when brain pauses fail to fire a signal for you to breathe, obstructive sleep apnea prevents normal breathing due to airway obstruction.
In one case, Dr. Avinder witnessed a patient whose breathing stopped for a full four minutes and three seconds. After arriving at the lab with a previous diagnosis of mild sleep apnea, testing revealed a life-threatening disorder.
A second incident involved a 30-year-old patient with severe obstructive sleep apnea. While being monitored, his heart stopped for 6.5 seconds. The testing was extremely valuable as it picked up a dangerous situation that the patient was unaware of.
To help you sleep peacefully throughout the night, a visit to the sleep clinic might be in order.
Learn more by visiting them online!
