Sleep as if Your Life Depended upon It — It Just Might

Quick! What do the musician Jerry Garcia, actor John Candy and football player Reggie White all have in common? 

Sadly, each died as a result of sleep apnea, a condition only recognized since the 1960s that is becoming more prevalent as the huge Boomer population ages and doctors more accurately diagnosis it. 

Island resident Daniel Levy of in Alameda, which provides treatment and testing for sleep apnea, says the condition is an equal opportunity one – impacting all demographics and ages. He has treated children as young as age 4 and elders up to age 94 who suffer from it. 

Levy says the condition is sometimes genetic and is often exacerbated by age. It can be caused by a variety of factors including facial structure, the position of tonsils, the loss of muscle tone that naturally occurs as one ages and obesity. It involves the collapse of the upper airway while people sleep, and although it is often accompanied by loud snoring, not all people who have sleep apnea snore. Patients deprived of adequate oxygen during these episodes of upper airway collapse are unable to get the restorative deep sleep everyone needs.  

Possible symptoms associated with it include loud snoring, choking or gasping during sleep, daytime fatigue, night sweats, nightmares, and an inability to stay asleep through the night. Health experts are paying increased attention to the condition and treating it more aggressively since, Levy says, research indicates it is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, heart attack, stroke, erectile dysfunction, diabetes and bed-wetting.  He says some researchers now suspect it could also play a role in A.D.H.D. (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) in children. 

While men are three times more likely than women to suffer from sleep apnea, after women reach menopause the risk is equally shared between the genders. Having a neck size of 17 inches or more can also dramatically increase your risk of having it. “It is estimated over 50 percent of football linebackers have sleep apnea,” says Levy. 

According to Levy, the public and medical community could benefit from more awareness of the condition. “Unfortunately, on average,” he says, “doctors only get one half-day of training regarding sleep in medical school despite the fact it consumes one-third of our life.”  For many people, he said, self-diagnosis is the first step in getting treatment. 

Levy recommends people visit the National Sleep Foundation’s website for general information about the condition. There is also a on-line self-test called the Epworth Sleepiness Scale that he says is useful in helping people assess their level of sleep deprivation. 

While self-awareness is important, Levy says the most important thing people who think they might have sleep apnea can do is visit their own doctors and share all of their symptoms with them. 

“Although there is no cure for sleep apnea," he says, "there are effective ways to treat its symptoms.”  

Levy says the “gold standard” of treatment is to use a CPAP machine which provides positive airway pressure during sleep to keep the upper airway from collapsing. “This is not like a ventilator. It does not blow air into your lungs to breathe for you,” he explains, “but it is rather like a stent that provides pressure to keep the airway open.”  These machines are portable, fitting on a small bedside table, and operate on electrical current or can be battery-operated. They were only put in use beginning in the mid-1980s, according to Levy and have since become the first treatment option of choice for most patients. 

Other sleep apnea patients try surgical solutions to change the characteristics of the airway after an evaluation by an ear, nose and throat physician. Levy notes there are various surgical options available, but there is no one procedure right for everyone. He says it is sometimes hard for doctors to determine which surgical procedure is best to use and soft tissue can sometimes grow back after an operation. 

Those with less serious sleep apnea sometimes can be treated effectively with a custom dental appliance which pulls their lower jaw forward, creating more upper airway room. Levy says there are dentists especially trained to fit patients with these appliances. 

Researchers are also experimenting with numerous other new treatments, Levy notes, including a sort of pacemaker device implanted in a patient’s shoulder which can sense when their airway collapses and sends a signal to open it. 

Levy, himself, has sleep apnea, becoming aware of it in 2000 when he read a book called “The Promise of Sleep.”

The Long Island native and Cornell University graduate worked in the cable and interactive TV field until 2001 when the dot com bubble burst. After reading the book “What Color is My Parachute” Levy realized he had a passionate interest in sleep research. He conducted numerous informational interviews at sleep laboratories throughout the region and in 2002 landed a position with a company that offered home sleep testing and sleep condition equipment. 

By 2005 Levy opened his own sleep center, Somni Health, near Nob Hill Foods on the Island, which operated until this year when he closed it and became affiliated with a larger company — Grove Medical Equipment and its sister company the California Center for Sleep Disorders in Alameda, which offers at-home or in-lab sleep evaluations. 

He says the local company’s biggest challenge will be keeping up with the ever-growing demand for its services. “As the baby-boomer generation ages,” he says, “the need to treat sleep disorders is only going to increase.” 

Levy says it is fortunate we live in an era when sleep disorders can be diagnosed and successfully treated. “Just think in times past,” he says, “when people would say of someone — he died peacefully in his sleep. What does that mean? Could they have had undiagnosed sleep apnea?” 

If someone thinks they might have sleep apnea, or another sleeping disorder, Levy advises they should first meet with their own physician. Patients can be seen by the Alameda sleep lab with or without a doctor referral. There are physicians on-site at the local sleep lab to conduct the testing. Levy says most, although not all, insurance companies cover sleep testing and the purchase of treatment equipment. He says more information can be provided, on an individual basis, by calling the sleep lab at 510-263-3300.