Sleep Technology

This is the final installment in a six-part series on the evolution of the sleep technologist role. AAST has engaged professionals from across allied healthcare to address, from their perspective, the value of collaborating more closely with sleep technologists and/or incorporating the discipline into their area of health. Nurses, Heal Thyself! I am a nurse. I have been for 20 years, and I have been tired for those entire two decades. I am not alone. As nurses, we are called upon to be superheroes ... impervious to things like hunger, pain, sadness and fatigue. We keep going. As the years go on we become crusty and curt. We proudly earn the nickname ‘Nurse Ratchett’. We show up. We put aside our fatigue to care for patients because we consider the need for sleep to be a character flaw; only for the weak. A true nurse can churn out shift after shift, even on minimal sleep because we will never abandon our patients.

This is part four in a six-part series on the evolution of the sleep technologist. AAST has engaged professionals from across allied healthcare to address, from their perspective, the value of collaborating closer with sleep technologists and/or incorporating the discipline into their area of health.  Orofacial myology is the study and understanding of the normal and abnormal patterns surrounding the development of the muscles of the face and mouth, and in turn, how they affect speech, swallowing, dentition and sleep, among other areas. A myofunctional therapy provider is concerned with the importance of a term coined Oral Rest Posture (ORP). This refers to the proper resting place of the tongue in one’s oral cavity. At rest, the tongue should rest against the upper alveolar ridge, just behind the front teeth. The tongue should rest against the palate, with the sides of the tongue contained by the teeth. This position provides the proper foundation for the growth and development of the entire craniofacial mechanism and guides a persons tooth eruption, craniofacial and airway development.

This is part three in a six-part series on the evolution of the sleep technologist. AAST has engaged professionals from across allied healthcare to address, from their perspective, the value of collaborating closer with sleep technologists and/or incorporating the discipline into their area of health.  Evolution, by any stretch of the imagination, can be a hard concept to grasp. It involves acknowledging that what is happening at the moment might not be the best thing to bring into the future, but trusting that the unknown is going to lead you to where you should be. How we take care of our patients today needs to adapt to the changing healthcare environment, where reimbursements are fluctuating and insurance payors are creating an uncertain future. The way in which we have always done things needs to adapt to this new healthcare reality. The sleep field has evolved tremendously over the years, and the role of a sleep professional continues to grow within the sleep realm. 

This is part two in a six-part series on the evolution of the sleep technologist role. AAST has engaged professionals from across allied healthcare to address, from their perspective, the value of collaborating more closely with sleep technologists and/or incorporating the discipline into their area of health. Check out part one here. As a clinical dentist, I have been intimately familiar with the issue of airway patency for almost 40 years.  It was during my dental school days back in the late 1970’s that I was introduced to the concept of “form follows function” as it pertains to facial growth in children and adolescents.

Professional athletes put their bodies through a lot. High-intensity competition, grueling travel schedules, late games — all of this makes good sleep hygiene crucial. A well-rested and recovered athlete plays better than a sleep-deprived one, and professional teams are starting to understand how the sleep health of their athletes impacts wins and losses. In the third installment of our Sports & Sleep series, we spoke with sleep and fatigue expert Pat Byrne about his work with the Vancouver Canucks and his company, Fatigue Science.

Professional athletes put their bodies through a lot. High-intensity competition, grueling travel schedules, late games — all of this makes good sleep hygiene crucial. A well-rested and recovered athlete plays better than a sleep-deprived one, and professional teams are starting to understand how the sleep health of their athletes impacts wins and losses. In the second installment of our Sports & Sleep series, we spoke with Dr. Christopher Winter, owner of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine clinic and CNSM Consulting.

Professional athletes put their bodies through a lot. High-intensity competition, grueling travel schedules, late games — all of this makes good sleep hygiene crucial. A well-rested and recovered athlete plays better than a sleep-deprived one, and professional teams are starting to understand how the sleep health of their athletes impacts wins and losses. In the first installment of our Sports & Sleep series, we spoke with Amy Bender, MS, PhD., the clinical program director of athlete services at the Centre for Sleep & Human Performance.

Sleep problems can predispose individuals to many medical conditions. Conversely, medical disorders can lead to sleep disturbance. In fact, sleep disturbance represents one of the most challenging, yet exceptionally common problems faced in the primary care practice today.

"The app I downloaded tells me that I am sleeping just fine ..." As sleep technologists, how many times have we heard this from patients?  That latest piece of software or technology that promises to help with sleep apnea or make our jobs obsolete, commonly known as “sleep trackers” or “activity monitors" carries with them many questions for both patients and sleep technologists. 

Dance marathons captivated popular attention in the United States from the 1920s to the 1950s. These events were examples of competitive sleep deprivation. Contestants, who remained in nearly continuous motion for hundreds or even thousands of hours on the dance floor by forcibly delaying sleep onset, exhibited symptoms of behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome (ISS). Reporters from local dailies who followed these contestants documented irresistible sleep attacks, physical exhaustion and episodes of delusional ideation due to severely restricted rest breaks.