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Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
As an expert in behavioral sleep medicine, I see firsthand how difficult it is for many patients to adapt to a CPAP (continuous airway pressure) machine. In addition to being familiar with common clinical issues, I have been running the Behavioral Sleep Medicine program at the University of Chicago for 10 years and recently launched a virtual organization that addresses the behavioral sleep needs of patients with such challenges. Before starting graduate school, I was also a polysomnography technician at Johns Hopkins, but did CPAP setup for patients who were actually diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Some patients say, “What a god-you And for a while I reply with words trained to say, “Endocrinologists don’t have to try insulin to understand their diabetes needs.” rem– Related sleep apnea, was able to be set up with CPAP.
I need to share what we once called Type A people. For example, I exercise every day and was one of the pet types of annoying teachers at school. So, for me, I never really given myself another option: I was going to wear CPAP every night.
It took me a few days to adapt. I used our desensitization tool for that. I’ll see Seinfeld She wears a pre-dinner episode and a CPAP for 30 minutes and sits upright on the sofa in a minimal environment. After this few days I was able to get used to the new sensation of breathing myself along with pressurized air.
Again, I had an advantage because I wasn’t struggling insomnia. I remember thinking how hard the process would have been if I had done it. As an insomnia expert, my mind always goes to that question: how does this feel to my patients?
I imagined I’m lying In the bed of insomnia, while trying to adapt to this new sensation of I’m sleeping Breathe with masks, pressurized air and say, “Wow, this should be very, very challenging for patients with uncontrolled insomnia to adapt to CPAP. I want to help them.”
From my point of view, the solution is: Get access to these patients Cognitive behavior Treatment of insomnia (CBT-I). This is an evidence-based program that supports 70-80% of patients. If it could be made easier for them to fall asleep first, it would certainly make their journey easier with CPAP. My team and I started managing insomnia in these patients, and it was very rewarding. As the data show, approximately half of patients suffering from CPAP have insomnia. Especially for patients with sleep insomnia (i.e. it takes more than 30 minutes to fall asleep more than three nights a week), passing CBT-I is extremely unsatisfied with CPAP success.
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