On World Sleep Day, the importance of sleep for health in adults and children cannot be overemphasised. Lack of sleep causes various health issues, from the mildly disruptive to the severely debilitating. From impairing your everyday ability to perform tasks to promoting severe disorders like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, dementia, and several types of cancers, poor sleep is a scientifically confirmed health hazard.
American Hospital Dubai’s Department for Sleep Medicine is a one-stop solution addressing all sleep disorders in adults and children. The state-of-the-art facility provides consultation, diagnoses, and treatments for all sleep disorders, including patients’ sleep monitoring, with the most advanced digital and analog equipment for precise information and personalised treatment plans.
For adults
The Department for Sleep Medicine’s Adults Sleep Medicine programme offers comprehensive treatments for those struggling with breathing difficulties during sleep (sleep apnea), face difficulty falling or staying asleep (insomnia), have sudden bouts of excessive sleepiness (narcolepsy), generally feel sleepy during the day (hypersomnia), suffer sleep movement disorders such as restless leg syndrome, or experience unusual sleep-related behaviours such as night terrors, nightmares, confused awakenings or nocturnal seizures.
Are you showing poor sleep signs such as sleepy despite sound sleep; waking up tired; tired and sleepy during the day; restless sleep; poor focus, concentration, and memory; morning headaches; uncontrolled high blood pressure; uncontrolled blood sugar; frequent night urination; and depression.
For children
The Department’s Paediatric Sleep Medicine programme addresses sleep deprivation and associated issues in infants, children, and adolescents.
Does your child have any sleep-related issues such as daytime sleepiness, morning headaches, hyperactivity, snoring and choking sounds during sleep, gasping during sleep, nightmares and night terror? If yes, you must help them undergo a sleep study.
And if your baby is premature and on oxygen, pay special attention to their sleep patterns.
American Hospital Dubai’s Department for Sleep Medicine addresses all sleep apneas (breathing difficulties during sleep) in children, including:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OAS): It is the most common type of sleep-related disorder where the throat muscles relax and block the upper airways partially (hypopnea) or completely (apnea), causing reduced or absent breathing. OAS can also be due to enlarged adenoids and tonsils or if the child is obese.
Central Sleep Apnea: Though less common than OAS, Central Sleep Apnea occurs due to the lack of proper signals by the brain to the muscles that control breathing. Neurological issues can cause this condition.
Complex Sleep Apnea: This condition combines symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Central Sleep Apnea.
Sleep medicine services for these conditions include sleep laboratory or sleep study (also called polysomnography), home-based sleep screening, nocturnal oximetry (to monitor oxygen intake at night during sleep), daytime sleep monitoring, and capnography (measuring exhalation of carbon dioxide during sleep to assess the rate of ventilation, circulation, and metabolism in the patient).
Source: Zawya