Sleep is controlled by the brain and is essential for human life. Impaired sleep adversely affects every organ in the body. A sleep disorder occurs when sleep patterns are disrupted. They are often serious enough to impact on a person’s physical, mental, social and intellectual functioning. Sleep apnoea and insomnia are the most common sleep disorders. Other examples of sleep disorders include restless legs syndrome (RLS) and narcolepsy.
Some disorders may not require treatment. If they cause distress small changes can often be made in order to alleviate the problem. Insomnia, the most common form of sleep complaint, can be a symptom of a different issue that should be assessed and treated by a physician. Some of the more involved sleep disorders need to be treated at a sleep disorder clinic. While occasional snoring alone may be quite harmless, it may indicate the presence of a more serious medical condition such as sleep apnoea.
Sleep apnoea is a serious, and potentially life-threatening, sleep disorder. Sleep apnoea can be successfully treated with Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), a mask-like device that delivers a stream of air while you sleep. Losing weight, elevating the head of the bed, and sleeping on your side can also help in some cases of mild to moderate sleep apnoea. Dental devices can also be effective for many people with sleep apnoea.
Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sleep disorder that causes an irresistible urge to move your legs (or arms). The urge to move occurs when you’re resting or lying down and is usually due to uncomfortable, tingly, aching, or creeping sensations.
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that involves excessive, uncontrollable daytime sleepiness. It is caused by a dysfunction of the brain mechanism that controls sleeping and waking. If you have narcolepsy, you may have “sleep attacks” while in the middle of talking, working, or even driving.
This project, sponsored by MS research Australia, focuses on sleep apnoea in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Our recent study, amongst other studies, suggests that sleep apnoea rates are higher in people with MS. However little is known about the causes of sleep apnoea in people with MS and how they might be different from people without MS. This project involves a sleep study including physiological measurements to identify differences in the causes of sleep apnoea between people with and without MS.
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a common disorder characterised by repetitive narrowing and collapse of the upper airway during sleep. It is associated with daytime sleepiness, neurocognitive impairment, and a variety of adverse cardiovascular consequences. The first line treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. If tolerated, CPAP is highly effective in reducing sleep disordered breathing events. However, up to 50% of OSA patients are unable to tolerate CPAP therapy leaving many OSA patients without treatment.
Previous studies indicate that in selected obstructive sleep apnea participants a standard dose of a z-drug can shift the threshold for awakening during sleep (arousal) whilst maintaining the upper airway muscle activity required to keep the airway open. This study aims to investigate the effects of different doses of sleeping pills (Z-drugs) on how easily people wake up when the airway narrows during sleep, the activity of a major muscle located under the tongue (genioglossus) and obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) severity and symptoms.
Approximately 1/3 of all obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients have poor upper airway muscle activity during sleep which contributes to the repetitive narrowing or closure of the airway during sleep. This leads to abrupt arousals and disruption of sleep throughout the night which can lead to various health problems including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, high blood pressure, impaired cognitive function, decreased quality of life and patients are more likely to be involved in motor vehicular accidents.
Recent studies have found that combination of these noradrenergic and antimuscarinic agents help to improve upper airway muscle activity during sleep. Therefore, this clinical study will focus on determining the effects of these agents on the severity of sleep apnoea in OSA patients in hopes to improve treatment outcomes for OSA patients in the future. The study also aims to determine the effects of these combination of agents on cognitive alertness and other sleep parameters which are impaired in patients with OSA.
Obstructive sleep apnoea is a sleep disorder that affects more than 4% of the population and can lead to symptoms from daytime drowsiness to high blood pressure. People with sleep apnoea are often not breathing normally during sleep and may experience periods where the airway closes and they are unable to breathe. In severe sleep apnoea this can occur 50-60 times each hour. That is once each minute. The closure of the upper airway is thought to be due to a number of factors, one of which is that the neural drive to the airway muscles is insufficient in people with sleep apnoea. In our lab, we have made the first extensive recordings from the major muscle of the upper airway, genioglossus. We have shown that the neural drive to this muscle is very complex, more so than any limb muscle. At NeuRA, we have also pioneered new methods to image this muscle using fMRI and ultrasound. We are now planning to look at how changes in muscle architecture and mechanics relate to the neural drive to the muscle and whether that relationship is maintained in people with sleep apnoea.
After cervical spinal cord injury (SCI), the respiratory muscles are partly or completely paralysed. This has two major clinical consequences: a decreased ability to get air into the lungs and a decreased ability to cough and remove secretions. This results in a lifetime of recurrent respiratory tract infections (2/year/person) that often progress to pneumonia with frequent and extended hospital admissions. People with cervical SCI are 150 times more likely to die from respiratory complications than the general population, as many as 28% die within the first year after injury. For those that survive the first year, a cervical SCI has a lifetime cost of $9.5million, a large proportion of which is attributed to respiratory-related complications. A recent longitudinal study of people with cervical SCI showed that respiratory muscle weakness is associated with incidental pneumonia. Respiratory muscle weakness also causes dyspnoea (breathlessness) and sleep-disordered breathing, which is 4-10 times more prevalent in people with SCI than the able-bodied population. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify a simple and cost-effective treatment for respiratory muscles weakness to prevent respiratory complications after SCI, improve quality of life and reduce the burden on the healthcare system.
Our primary aim is to determine definitively the effectiveness of training on respiratory muscle strength, respiratory physiology and health outcomes. To do this we will conduct a randomised controlled trial 2 times bigger than the largest previous study, of respiratory muscle resistive load training in individuals with acute and chronic cervical SCI. The project will provide critical new knowledge about the efficacy of a simple and inexpensive respiratory muscle training regime, which can be applied immediately in the hospital and community, to minimise respiratory morbidity in people with SCI. This project also provides a unique opportunity to investigate other consequential effects of long-term respiratory muscle training that have never been studied in people with SCI. These include effects on cough efficacy, sleep-disordered breathing, breathlessness, respiratory morbidity, respiratory health and neural drive to the diaphragm, as well as quality of life.
We have developed novel imaging methods to measure the stiffness and movement of the upper airway muscles, and are using these together with measures of pharyngeal sensation, and electromyography to determine the patient-specific causes of obstructive sleep apnoea. We aim to use this information to tailor treatments for patients. One such treatment is a mandibular advancement splint, but currently it’s not possible to predict who will benefit from use a splint. We have a major project that aims to predict splint treatment outcome, based on our novel imaging methods.• Honours and PhD projects are available to study the neural, biomechanical and physiological aspects of obstructive sleep apnoea, including computational modelling
Many baby boomers believe they will never have to slow down. Yet our research shows that they are worried about their brain health. The 50s and 60s are when something as seemingly innocuous as a sleep disorder, particularly obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can lay the foundations for poor health for the rest of their lives. Obstructive sleep apnoea is a […]