Glimpse
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, March 23, 1989
5
Clyde Appleton, Kansas City, Kan., resident, waits for the lights to go out during his session in the lab.
No Doze
Lab diagnoses sleep disorders
Story by Jennifer Corser
Clyde Appleton wants some sleep.
He puts on his pajamas, ready to lie down in the small hospital bed. An other night, he would probably go to sleep.
This night, however, Appleton will be covered with wires and gadgets before he is allowed to slumber.
When Appleton sleeps, he will be studied for sleep disorders in the sleep laboratory at the University of Kansas. The laboratory collects data to diagnose patients with possible sleep disorders, especially breathing problems.
Appleton, Kansas City, Kan., resident and a truck driver, said he had been falling asleep and having blackouts while driving for the past 20 years. He was originally from Oklahoma, where he met him but he recently decided to be tested for a sleep disorder.
"It's gotten a little bit worse lately," he said.
In preparation for the night ahead, Connastance Shivers-Smith, polysomnographic technician, begins gluing electrodes to Appleton's head, face and chest. The electrodes are used to measure heart rate and respiration and to detect the patient's stage of sleep, Shivers-Smith said.
"Some people worry about not getting to sleep with all the things attached to them," she said.
Appleton probably will not have that difficulty.
"I could fall asleep in this chair if I wanted to," he said, his eyes drooping sleepily.
The most common sleep disorder the laboratory diagnoses is sleep apnea. Shivers-Smith said. People with sleep apnea get an obstruction between their nose and throat, such as their tongue or a collapsed windpipe, because they can't breathe while sleeping. Because they can't breathe their brains wake up and never enter into a deep sleep.
In the next bedroom, Paul Depalma, Shawnee, Kan., resident, also is covered with electrodes, wire tape and acrylic foam.
Depalma, at the laboratory for the third time, maskers with sleep apnea, Shivers-Smith said. The mask and tube
are part of a machine which helps him breathe at night. Depalma said that before he began using the machine
"I'd finally wake up on the floor in an unusual position," Depalma said.
Depalma said he went to the laboratory to see if the machine was the best treatment for his disorder.
I hope this is the last time I come here, he said.
Those with sleep apnea use the mask and machine every night in order to get a good night's rest, Shivers-Smith said.
"If you have been chronically sleep deprived, like some of these people, you are willing to do almost anything," she said.
The Med Center began sleep studies in 1976 during the day when patients slept in a room with closed blinds for several hours, said Robert Whitman, director of pulmonary and sleep disorders laboratories. About 1978, a sleep disorder laboratory opened for the first time in a specific room.
Gerald Kerby, professor of medicine said the laborate was used three days a week with two patients at a time. He noted that it took 20 minutes to complete.
Appleton and Depalma are ready for bed after an hour spent with technicians hooking them up to the laboratorium.
As the two doze off, unaware of what is going on in the next room, the machines begin clicking and whirring.
Technicians monitor the patients' sleep throughout the night with the use of machines, computers and televised
The laboratory technicians spend another day analyzing the results, Kerby said.
Patients are awakened at 6 a.m. Shivers-Smith said. If they were not awakened, most would sleep for 10 or 12 hours.
Appleton is one of those patients who would rather stay in bed the next morning.
"I don't get up for anybody at six in the morning," he said.
Matt Wilkinson, Kansas City, Mo., resident, fits headgear onto Paul Depalma, Shawnee resident. The headgear holds a nasal mask that allows continuous airflow for people who suffer from sleep apnea.
Polysomnographic technicians Dean Norton, left, and Matt Wilkerson check the subjects' sleeping patterns to record signs of sleep anorea.
Dean Norton, Kansas City, Mo., resident, checks one of the subjects on a video monitor
Photos by Steve Traynor
Showing signs of fatigue, Dean Norton studies for a class. Because they must stay alert during the all-night sessions, the technicians use the time to get work done or to study