Sweet Dreams

Thousands of Manitobans have trouble sleeping at night and staying awake during the day. Some snooze at work, others get into vehicle collisions because they nod off while driving. Here's how one Winnipeg clinic is turning their personal nightmares into sweet dreams.

By Joel Schlesinger

The irony of the moment did not escape Krystyna MacDuff.

For eight years, the Winnipeg woman struggled to stay awake. Now, she was lying on a bed at the Sleep Disorder Clinic at Misericordia Health Centre. Technicians in a room down the hall were waiting for her to nod off so they could begin to figure out the source of her nocturnal problems. And she couldn't close her eyes.

There were, of course, many possible reasons for this failure to snooze on demand. It might have been the strange setting. Or it could have been all the wires and sensors.

First there were the electrodes. They were attached to the top and back of her head to measure her brain waves. They were attached beside her eyes to measure eye movements. They were attached to her jaw, and there were even electrodes on her legs to monitor leg kicks.

Then there was the cannula, a modified oxygen hose, which was inserted under her nose to measure carbon dioxide levels and airflow when she exhaled. An electrocardiogram measured her heart rate. A pulseoximeter had been placed on an index finger to gauge oxygen levels in her blood. MacDuff was literally wired before bedtime.

But, as she recalls, it was embarrassment that was really keeping her from falling asleep. "In a way, I didn't want to fall asleep because I knew that I would probably snore," says the 61-year-old healthcare aide.

It wasn't the first time MacDuff was left feeling embarrassed by her sleeping habits.

Related Links Sleep apnea A field guide to sleep disorders Sleep right, sleep tight

For the previous eight years, MacDuff had waged a constant battle against falling asleep during the daytime. She would doze off at her desk at work. She would pull over to the side of the road between appointments and snooze for 15 minutes. She even had two minor fender benders because she could not control slipping in and out of consciousness because she was so exhausted.

One incident was particularly embarrassing: she dozed off at her own dinner party and awoke to the laughter of the other partygoers. 'You snore funny,' they told me. I was so embarrassed, I never invited my guests back again."

Like many people who suffer from a sleep disorder, MacDuff did not link her snoring to her fatigue - she just assumed she was getting older and losing her energy. It wasn't until her partner became worried after witnessing her stop breathing for 30-second spans in her sleep that she decided to see her family doctor. He surmised MacDuff may be suffering from sleep apnea, a type of sleep disorder, and referred her to the Sleep Disorder Centre for a sleep study.

Located on the third floor of Misericordia Health Centre, the Sleep Disorder Centre is essentially a collection of 10 rooms connected by closed-circuit monitoring cameras. At the centre of it all is the control room, which houses a bank of monitors and computers that keep track of the sleeping patterns of patients in the surrounding rooms.

Each evening at about 9 p.m., as many as 10 sleepless Manitobans walk into the centre, hoping that the five technicians and their assorted gadgetry will be able to determine whether a particular sleep disorder is keeping them up at night and fatigued during the day. During their 12-hour shift, each polysomnographic technologist (PSG Tech) is responsible for monitoring two patients with up to 16 different sensors per patient. Their job is to ensure patient comfort and safety as well as producing clear recordings and assessing treatment options. Contrary to popular belief, a sleep study is not just "putting someone in bed and watching them sleep"; it is a highly technical, labour-intensive process. The facility opened last summer, replacing two smaller clinics at Health Sciences Centre and St. Boniface General Hospital, to keep pace with demand for services.

And business has been brisk. Dr. Sat Sharma, a respirologist at the sleep centre, says the number of patients with sleep disorders in Manitoba has jumped during the last 20 years. The centre expects to receive more than 3,000 referrals this year, a significant increase over what the old clinics could handle. "In March alone, we had 400 to 500 referrals," Sharma says. Still, keeping pace with the rising volume of patients does pose challenges.

Demand for services over the last two decades has been steadily increasing, partly because of an aging population and increasing rates of obesity, two risk factors for disruptive sleep. The most dramatic of these cases involve people who suffer severe affects, including prolonged periods of insomnia, extreme daytime fatigue and deteriorating overall health. But many people may suffer from a sleep disorder and not even know it. Like MacDuff, they can go for years feeling physically tired and mentally exhausted and not realize it all has to do with a lack of proper sleep.

"If anything, it is the partner who will pick up on the problem, or someone who observes them sleeping," Sharma says. "Some people do wake up with a choking sensation (a symptom of a sleep disorder), but that is a minority. Most people wake up tired, and they would not know they were waking up hundreds of times during the night."

Continue reading "Sweet Dreams"

Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Back to Wave main page

Wave is published six times a year by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in cooperation with the Winnipeg Free Press. It is available at newsstands, hospitals and clinics throughout Winnipeg, as well as McNally Robinson Books.