Comprehensive sleep disorders program offers
SWEET DREAMS By Gale Smith
F
or more than 30 years, Daniel Meneses dreamed only of one thing — getting a good night’s sleep. Since he was 13, he woke up in the morning more exhausted and physically achy than when he went to bed the night before. “Almost every day, I would walk into a room and ask myself, ‘Why am I here?’ It got to the point where I was always depressed; I thought I just wasn’t smart because I couldn’t remember anything.” Growing up in his native Colombia, Meneses had little access to resources, so he learned to live with the problem. As he got older, he became more impatient and irritable, to the point where his behavior affected relationships with friends and family. At the age of 48, Meneses knew he needed help when he had to make to-do lists so he wouldn’t forget anything. Just as important, he couldn’t play board games with his wife anymore. “She loves board games, but I couldn’t concentrate,” he said. “I couldn’t even remember my last move during a simple checkers game.”
can’t fall asleep within 30 minutes of lying down, have excessive daytime sleepiness or sleep for seven or more hours and wake up tired, it’s usually a sign they have a more serious sleep problem.
The Sleepover As with all overnight sleep studies conducted at Methodist, Meneses spent the night in a room modeled after an in-home bedroom, decorated with soothing colors, TV, easy chair and an adjacent bathroom. Sleep center technologists attach wires to electrodes, placed on the patient’s head and upper torso to measure brain waves, eye and chin movement, the different stages of sleep, heart rate and rhythm. None of the devices is painful, and there are no needles involved. Additional monitors measure leg movement, breathing, and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Monitoring is done in a nearby control room, and a video record is made of the entire stay.
His wife finally convinced him to seek medical help. Through an Internet search, they found Dr. Aparajitha Verma, a neurophysiologist at The Methodist Hospital. After talking with Meneses about his history and symptoms, Verma recommended a sleep study.
The study begins with “lights out.” At that time, patients are not permitted to read, watch TV, eat, talk on the phone or perform any other activity that may interfere with sleep. They are monitored for approximately eight hours. After being awakened in the morning by the technologist, patients are given an hour to shower and prepare for the day ahead.
Verma, who is medical director of the hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center, says whenever people
Now, more than three decades after his problems began, Meneses knows the reason for his years of sluggishness
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2
!
3
