Imagine the refreshing feeling you feel when you wake up after a good night’s sleep. It seems as if you can take on the world. Nothing can stop you from taking on whatever life throws at you because you have the energy and mental acuity that only enough rest and sleep can give you. Indeed, sleep is a curative process and your body benefits from it in many ways but it is something that we also increasingly miss out on because of our modern lifestyle. There’s almost no difference now between night and day except the unstoppable darkness that envelops the land without fail since our planet came to life. The nights are just as alive as the days. With a thriving nightlife especially in big cities. The dominance of technology is also a big distraction. Instead of closing your eyes and drifting off to sleep once you hit the sack, many of us are guilty of still using your smartphones and browsing the web and social media until the wee hours of the morning.
Aside from these modern vices, there are certain sleep conditions like insomnia and sleep apnea that makes sleep impossible. The latter even affects partners and spouses because the loud snoring is just so annoying. No wonder that sleep clinics are gaining in popularity nowadays. It is a good thing since people with sleep issues no longer need to line up in clinics and hospitals alongside other sick patients because there is now a facility that is especially equipped with the staff and equipment needed to address problems involving sleep (or better yet, the lack of it). Since there are plenty of sleep clinics now that can help you with your sleep woes, there is no reason for you to keep on losing sleep each night.
The global market for sleep aids, of which gadgetry is a part, is predicted to be worth up to US$80 billion (Dh293bn) by 2020, and this trend was evident at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year where a section was devoted exclusively to sleep-related technology.
Sleep trackers, which aim to measure the amount of sleep you’re getting each night, use accelerometers, microphones and other sensors to detect tossing and turning, and report back their findings in the morning. Since the appearance of the first sleep tracking smartphone apps towards the end of the last decade, these measurements have become more sophisticated – although they still stop short of polysomnography techniques used in sleep clinics. Sensors such as iFit Sleep and S+, can track heart rate or breathing intensity, while last year Apple bought a Finnish sleep tracking firm, Beddit, with a view to incorporating its technology into its own products. Sleep tracking has, however, been criticised for its passive nature. After all, our bodies can already tell when we haven’t had enough sleep; many of these trackers merely provide the numbers to confirm the extent of the insomnia without doing anything practical to address it.
You get to stay for the night in sleep clinics so the medical staff can assess you properly. In your sleep, of course, because your problems occur while you are in slumber. There are several devices attached to you to check what your body is like when you are sleeping. It really is a complex and extensive process of evaluating your sleeping habits and your body’s reactions to find out what is wrong with you and the best possible management for your condition. And you don’t even have to pay a fortune to afford a checkup at most sleep clinics because most medical insurance got it covered.
Behavioral changes also can be effective in tackling sleep issues. In 2016, the ACP recommended for the first time that cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia be the first-line treatment for adults with chronic insomnia. The ACP’s president stated that although there is not enough evidence to directly compare CBT-I and drug treatment, CBT-I likely is to be less harmful, while sleep medications can be associated with serious adverse effects.
CBT-I is a combination of treatments, including cognitive therapy, behavioral interventions, such as sleep restriction and stimulus control, and helping develop habits conducive to a good night’s sleep.
At times, more drastic interventions are needed to address problems in your slumber as not all the time simple lifestyle modifications helps, most importantly, it is not nice or safe to keep on taking sleeping pills all the time. At times, patients who come in at sleep clinics get prescribed with other sleep management techniques that do not always involve medicines. Behavioral therapy is just one example. While some may frown on such a strategy, it actually has been helpful to many and safe too because no chemical intake is involved like with conventional pharmacologic treatment. It’s the advantage of seeking treatment at a sleep clinic. Whatever your sleep condition is, you can expect to choose from a diverse set of options on what the best treatment is but still giving you the choice to decide for yourself. This has come in handy especially for patients suffering from sleep apnea and are least excited at the thought of sleeping with CPAP because they realize they have options after all.
Another helpful device you’ll know about during a visit to the sleep clinic is anti-snoring mouthpieces. There are different brands and makes in the market but these two are no fail as well: https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/zquiet and https://snoringmouthpiecereview.org/good-morning-snore-solution. You don’t have to live in fear all the time knowing your breathing stops in your sleep if you have sleep apnea but you don’t have to put up wearing a CPAP if you don’t like it either. You can simply use either of those two anti-snoring gadgets and you’ll do just fine.
