Certified in both sports medicine and neurology, Dr. Gabriele Barthlen, PhD, MD has directed several sleep centers and authored three books, 33 abstracts, and 15 peer-reviewed articles throughout her career.
She’s also been invited to speak at over 250 lectures, and today she’s accepted the invitation to speak on the podcast about the work that she’s currently doing at Sleep Center Hawaii and the latest in the world of sleep medicine.
Contrary to much of her previous work researching sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, insomnia, and a range of other sleep disorders, Dr. Barthlen now focuses almost exclusively on the clinical treatment of sleep apnea using the most established treatment options.
She explains:
What are each of most established treatment options.
How she treats patients who can’t travel to the sleep clinic.
The stage of sleep during which apnea is most likely to occur.
The life-threatening consequences of leaving sleep apnea untreated.
Learn more by visiting sleepcenterhawaii.com and feel free to give them a call at 808 456 REST.
One night of poor sleep can ruin the week. Chronic poor sleep can disrupt short and long-term mental and physical health.
And traditional sleep methods are misguided, which is why most of them don’t work.
Press play to discover:
Why the mind stays active even when you want to sleep, and how to make the mind go quiet without even trying to make it do so
How and why all other sleep methods fall short of helping most people achieve sleep
How the Sleep Easy method is a form of mind-body healing, easily achievable, and used as a replacement for sleep aids by many people
Why quality sleep lowers healthcare costs
Internationally renowned sleep expert and Co-Founder/Chief Clinical Officer at Sleep Easy, Richard Shane, has been featured in over 100 medical journals and publications.
Today, he shares his insights with listeners, and even leads them through a four-minute experience of the body sensations of sleep—a method he says triggers neurological switches for sleep.
It’s not hypnosis, it’s not meditation; it’s simpler than both.
For years, Shane struggled with “horrific” insomnia…leading him into a state of terror and anger, until he realized that he could use his experience as a way to discover how sleep happens. Through this process, he captured what he calls “secrets from the depths of sleep itself,” recording these secrets, implementing them into his method, and now sharing them with people all over the world.
The Sleep Easy method is a 14-day program consisting of daily and nightly recordings aimed at bringing people from insomnia to progressively deeper levels of sleep. In the near future, a clinical study will not only measure how quickly people enjoy improved sleep using this method, but also how this results in lower healthcare costs.
Phyllis Zee has studied circadian rhythm sleep disorders and symptoms for decades and shares key findings in this podcast. Listen and learn your way to better circadian habits.
She explains
How circadian rhythms set the timing for all other physiological processes in your day,
What are essential habits you can follow to help your sleep-wake internal clock do its best.
Phyllis C. Zee is the Chief of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Neurology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.
This podcast offers listeners an enlightening conversation about how our circadian clocks work and what happens when they don’t.
She is able to combine years of research with practical advice for listeners to address sleep issues. She explains that our circadian rhythms and sleep-wake schedules set the stage for all our other timing; therefore, disorders like sleep apnea or restless legs at night might fall under these larger issues.
She hits at the heart of sleep issues for many listeners: whether you are a night owl or morning lark, as long as you are able to keep to your ideal cycle, you might be ok; but problems arise when work and society dictate different hours. Therefore, your internal clock timing needs to be aligned with your social, physical, and work activities. She also addresses disorders outside of this tension such as the non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder. These patients have an intrinsic rhythm that is 26 or 27 hours, so they will drift an hour every day and have no predictability for their sleep habits.
She gives advice on how we can align our rhythm, from making sure we are exposed to daylight first thing in the morning to not eating within a few hours of bedtime.
For similar suggestions and other glimpses into the mystery of sleep, listen in and enjoy.
According to a meta-analysis study in 2015 that considered 226 studies, the practice of oral and breathing exercises lowered subjects’ apnea–hypopnea index (an index of the severity of apnea based on how many times and for how long breathing ceases per hour of sleep) by 50%.
So, what exactly are oral exercises?
It may sound a little odd at first, but Sarah Hornsby is a myofunctional therapist who teaches people how to strengthen their tongue, throat, breathe through their nose, and keep their tongue resting at the roof rather than the bottom of their mouth through a series of exercises she leads via Skype-based appointments, video programs, and YouTube videos. Her goal is to make this knowledge and resource globally accessible to the many people who are unnecessarily suffering or unaware that there is an actual fixable problem underlying their daily fatigue.
“It really is something that actually addresses root causes, and I appreciate that so much because I feel like a lot of what we do in modern medicine and dentistry is just about treating symptoms,” says Hornsby.
In addition to sleep apnea, headaches, jaw pain, neck pain, teeth grinding, and chronic sinus issues are just a few of the symptoms associated with oral myofunctional and breathing problems. Ultimately, a person’s overall health and well-being can be severely compromised by something that’s treatable without the use of pills or bothersome devices.
Hornsby makes for an insightful and eye-opening conversation that covers everything from craniofacial development and growth in children (and how it can be altered by the position of the tongue in the mouth), why snoring shouldn’t be brushed off as simply a nuisance, the importance of the respiratory disturbance index in evaluating the seriousness of a person’s sleep apnea, and what an initial consultation with her would look like.
Press play to hear the full conversation, find her videos on YouTube, and visit https://myomentor.com/ to learn more.
As the founder of CPAPBabes, Stacy Erickson Edwards is making it her mission to raise awareness of sleep apnea and the importance of receiving the right diagnosis early on, encourage people to appreciate the CPAP machine, which is the gold standard of treatment for sleep apnea, and empower people to use the machine with confidence and a sense of pride.
She discusses the tendency of people to associate sleep apnea and CPAP machines with overweight, unhealthy, older people, so it came as quite a shock to her when at 32 she received the diagnosis herself. But it is precisely these stereotypes—which are not at all reflective of reality—that are so detrimental and cause people to feel self-conscious about the diagnosis of sleep apnea, reluctant or embarrassed about using the machine, and ashamed for needing it. Edwards explains that this can easily lead to untreated cases of sleep apnea, which pose a threat not only to people’s health but to public safety. Among other topics, she discusses sleep apnea in kids and how untreated sleep apnea can be misdiagnosed as ADHD, the growing number of sleep apnea diagnoses among millennials, how the personalization of CPAP masks and machines could help change the stigma attached to them and make people more excited about using them, and a common problem with auto-adjust pressure machines.
Get in contact with Stacy Erickson Edwards on Instagram and check out her website at cpapbabes.com.
Well, you may or may not agree, but the point she’s making is that it’s far better to not care about a lack of sleep than to panic about it.
Press play for more of her insights and learn:
How different people are responding differently to the virus-related shutdowns and re-entry into the “old” way of life
Why the bed should only be for sleeping
Why eight hours of sleep isn’t best for everyone
Annie Miller is a psychotherapist and the founder of DC Metro Sleep and Psychotherapy, a private practice in Bethesda, Maryland. Her specialties include sleep and insomnia, anxiety, trauma, and chronic pain.
In today’s show, she discusses how the current virus situation has been impacting people’s anxiety and sleep health, and also explains her approach to helping people through these issues. In the process, she provides several tips on establishing and maintaining good sleep hygiene.
In this episode, we explore the world of deep sleep with Dr. Dan Gartenberg. Dr. Gartenberg is the CEO of SleepSpace, a company that provides people with various sleep-related resources so that they can discover effective ways to improve their rest.
Dr. Gartenberg has been trying to “hack sleep” for 15 years.
With a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, he is deeply interested in how sleep affects perception and discernment. Dr. Garten is determined to make a difference in the field of sleep health with his innovative mindset…
Join us now to explore:
The anti-aging benefits of enhancing sleep patterns.
SleepSpace’s approach to improving sleep quality.
How SleepSpace addresses various sleep issues.
The importance of achieving regular sleep patterns.
Sleep is how we process reality, and improving it has the potential to benefit many other parts of our lives – from healing trauma to achieving optimal cognitive function.
You can learn more about SleepSpace and its resources by visiting sleepspace.com. To get a 30-day free trial for listening, go to sleepspace.com/union now!
Snoring is so common these days that some people either think it’s normal or just learn to live with it, but many encounter all kinds of problems as a result of snoring, including relationships and serious health problems.
When Erin Elliott began asking her dental patients how they sleep at night and whether or not they snore, she was given a lot of strange looks.
That was 10 years ago when the connection between dental signs and symptoms weren’t really considered to have anything to do with sleep or snoring.
Today, many more dentists are acknowledging how they are intertwined and integrating this understanding into their practice.
Erin Elliott is a dentist who is so well known for this that many of her patients are referred to her for snoring problems by physicians or existing patients. On today’s episode, she discusses the varying causes and effects of snoring and how essential it is to identify the cause before implementing a snoring treatment, what kinds of dental signs and symptoms indicate the presence of a sleep or breathing problem, what’s happening physiologically when someone snores, and so much more.
By tuning in, you will discover:
How and why snoring can lead to tooth decay and poor gum health
Why losing weight could significantly improve snoring for one person, and not make a difference for another
Surgical, therapeutic, and lifestyle changes which could help reduce snoring.
Learn more by tuning in and emailing your questions to erinelliottdds@gmail.com.
Richard J. Schwab, MD, DABSM, Head of Sleep Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and the Co-Medical Director, Penn Sleep Center, discusses the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea, and obstructive sleep apnea treatment.
Podcast Points:
What is obstructive sleep apnea?
What causes sleep apnea in some, when others seem to avoid it, and what can you do about it?
How do soft tissues impact sleep?
Dr. Schwab provides some background on his work and the various sleep problems that exist.
He talks about sleep apnea, and why there is so much left to understand. Why does it happen when we sleep? He discusses soft tissue structures and lateral walls and other factors that can lead to airway paths collapsing.
Dr. Schwab’s extensive research seeks to target the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnea by using advanced upper airway imaging techniques. His studies help further explain the motion of various key structures of the upper airway and the role they play in airway closure. Dr. Schwab talks about the biomechanics of apneic events.
He provides information on how they utilize magnetic resonance imaging and electronic beam computed tomography during sleep, as well as wakefulness, to study patients. Dr. Schwab talks about abnormal craniofacial structures as well as soft tissue, and how they can potentially impact sleep apnea occurrences. He discusses mouth breathing, studies they conducted on tongue fat, and how it all could impact breathing issues.
As he states, if you naturally have a narrow airway, as movement occurs when you sleep, apnea could be initiated. He provides an in-depth discussion of how tissues move, and studies they have done on wakefulness. But he states there are more studies on sleep and breathing that they plan to do in the near future.
Dr. Schwab, through his exhaustive research annually, collaborates regularly with members of the Departments of Radiology and Biomechanical and Computer Engineering. And together, the scientific researcher/developers have designed an extremely advanced, computer graphics-based analysis software that can assist with modeling, in three dimensions, of the biomechanical interrelationships that exist between soft tissue structures and the upper airway.
Dr. Abramson is a dentist who specializes in sleep apnea and created a specific oral appliance called the Oasys.
In this discussion, he explains
the health risks associated with sleep apnea,
the differences between success rates for CPAP machines and oral appliances, and
the three zones oral appliances need to manage and why that makes a difference with sleep apnea.
As someone who has researched and applied various techniques to treat sleep apnea through dentistry, Dr.
Mark Abramson is able to discuss the process and benefits of oral appliances with effective clarity.
In this conversation he explains first why it is important to seek solutions to sleep apnea, from general health issues to a correlation between lack of deep sleeping and dementia.
He then describes the blocking that causes apnea and the mechanics for different treatment approaches. He highlights the success rate of oral appliances for several reasons, including the rates at which people stop using or won’t even try CPAP machines because of the discomfort and difficulty of wearing the device.
He then articulates the approach through dentistry in more detail, describing how oral appliances bring the jaw forward and can also treat other areas that may need addressing such as nasal dilation and small pads that reposition the tongue. His Oasys system is able to mechanically treat all three issues with one device.
Finally, he answers additional questions about oral appliances and dentistry such as effects on TMJ, the efficacy of over-the-counter products, and more.
For more information, see his practice website: Dr.
