Sleeping well is an important part of maintaining good overall health. Addressing problems with sleep can often help improve many other medical complaints. And most of the more than 90 sleep disorders are treatable and almost always help improve a person’s quality of life.

A sleep study helps to diagnose sleep disorders that may be causing not only disruptions in sleep that cause fatigue, but it also may help to diagnose or address other health conditions.

Skagit Valley Hospital opened our six-bed Center for Sleep Disorders in March 2008 to comfortably accommodate overnight sleep studies for patients. Patients come in to the Center for Sleep Disorders in the evening, spend the night and are able to leave in the morning in time to get to work or resume their normal schedule. Each spacious private room is furnished with a queen-sized “Sleep Comfort Select 5000” bed that a patient can adjust to suit their preferred level of firmness. An armoire provides a place for clothing and belongings and the interior décor is in warm natural tones. A flat-screen TV, private bathroom and other amenities provide a home-like environment for the patient’s overnight stay for a sleep study.

The center also features new state-of-the-art Sandman technology that makes it easier and faster to download sleep study data and allows for additional video and scoring capabilities. The center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The Center for Sleep Disorders is directed by certified sleep specialist Murali Maheswaran, DO who is board certified in neurology, sleep medicine, and behavioral sleep medicine. Dr. Maheswaran did his fellowship in sleep medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, the location of the first sleep disorders center in the world, which opened in 1972.

Sleep Disorders
Among the most common sleep disorders are:

Insomnia: Difficulty getting to or staying asleep.

Obstructive sleep apnea: Partial or complete narrowing of the airway during sleep which affects 24 percent of men and nine percent of women and can increase risk of hypertension, heart disease, stoke, diabetes, daytime sleepiness and night time awakening.

Restless leg syndrome: movements of the legs or arms during sleep, often increasing as people age. Affects 10 to 20 percent of the U.S. population.

Periodic limb movement disorder: Jerks of the arms or legs during sleep that people are not aware of.

For more information about sleep disorders, visit MedLine Plus, a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Restless Leg Syndrome

The following is an article by Dr. Murali Maheswaran, director of Skagit Valley Hospital's Center for Sleep Disorders

The Missing Link to explaining Behavioral problems: Restless Leg Syndrome

Can you or your children with behavioral problems, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or various psychiatric disorders actually have restless leg syndrome that is causing or contributing to these conditions? The answer is maybe, maybe, and maybe, respectively.

Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a disorder characterized by an uncomfortable sensation in the legs (but also can be in the arms) that is accompanied by an irresistible urge to move which usually results in temporary relief. It is believed to occur in 10 to 20 percent of the U.S population.Unfortunately, this uncomfortable sensation is very difficult to describe and therefore is commonly not reported to doctors. To describe RLS, adults have used various terms such as “creepy crawlies,” “aching,” “nagging,” “tingling,” “tugging,” “crampy,” “burning” and “restless” to name a few. RLS is usually painless but can be painful. The discomfort may be felt deep in the legs and commonly patients are labeled as “fidgety” and constantly move around in such settings as in a meeting or seated at a desk at work or at school. Patients are typically unaware of the extent that they are bouncing their legs because it becomes routine and they justify it because they believe that this is a “habit.”

If it is challenging for adults to describe their symptoms, just imagine how difficult it is for children to do so. Unfortunately, many children are misdiagnosed with growing pains when in fact they have RLS. Sleep problems in children can present very differently than adults. Adults may feel extremely sleepy or fatigued, lethargic and moody, while children can be hyperactive, inattentive and have behavioral problems at home or in school. Approximately 80 to 90 percent of patients with RLS have leg jerks while asleep. These leg jerks can, in turn, cause nighttime awakenings with or without the patient’s knowledge. Studies at Mayo Clinic have shown that more than 50 percent of children with ADHD may have these leg jerks during sleep which is medically termed periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD). These leg jerks can be so subtle that it can be missed by an observer. The consequences of not treating RLS and/or PLMD can be serious and include unsatisfactory performance in school, poor social development and abnormal social interactions resulting in the incorrect diagnosis of various psychiatric illnesses, including ADHD, among others. Some common subjective terms that children may use to describe RLS are “ouchies,” “oowies,” “hurts,” “pains,” “aches,” “want to run,” “tickles,” “spider” or “creepy crawlies.”

Treating RLS may not be the “cure all” of all your problems but it may be worth exploring since it can be a life changer. For more information please feel free to look at my article called Restless legs syndrome in children.