We may know a lot about practicing daytime healthful habits, but what about when we are sleeping? Andre U. Aguillon, MD is making it his life’s work to improve health by focusing on those hours of shut-eye that can impact every waking minute of our health.
“I consider sleep medicine to be the final frontier or the last unknown of medicine because there is so much about sleep that we do not know about and our understanding of sleep continues to evolve,” Aguillon says.
Aguillon is part of the team of board-certified sleep medicine physicians at the Regional Center for Sleep Medicine associated with the University of Toledo.
The foundation of knowledge is strong: Aguillon says getting restful sleep can have a profound impact on health; he says there are simple changes the average person can make to support a better night’s sleep.
“The key to good sleep is regularity; maintaining a consistent bedtime and wake time with an understanding of your own circadian rhythm,” Aguillon says. “Curtailing all sleep-incompatible activities is essential.”
Aguillon says you shouldn’t eat, watch TV, use your phone, or do problem-solving for at least an hour before going to bed. He says that exercising in the late afternoon to early evening can be beneficial and that when you finally turn in for the night, you should make sure that your sleeping environment is dark, quiet and comfortable.
Sometimes, those healthy habits are not enough. Many individuals are affected by a sleep disorder. Undiagnosed sleep disorders can cause various physical and psychological problems if untreated. Lack of restful sleep can include a decrease in the following: attention, alertness, vigilance, memory, learning, and concentration. It may also cause depressed mood, increased risk of accidents, and developments hypertension, cardiac disorders, diabetes, obesity, and altered immune system.
“Imagine the impact not only on one’s individual health but also on the education system, the transportation industry, and the overall workforce,” Aguillon says.
To diagnose a sleep disorder, the doctor takes a complete medical history and the patients fill out sleep-related surveys. The most common diagnostic tool is a polysomnogram or sleep study. This is when a patient sleeps overnight at a lab so that doctors can monitor their sleep patterns, heart rate, limb movements, breathing and blood oxygen level using non-invasive electrodes and sensors. This helps the doctor to narrow down what may be contributing to restless sleep.
“This would give us sleep clinicians a biochemical profile of the patient’s sleep-wake and we can direct therapy toward the specific neurotransmitter excess or deficiency.” - Dr. Andre U. Aguillon
Aguillon says it is important to be aware of your sleep patterns over the years. Even people who are very healthy can go through changes in their sleep cycles. As people get older, sleep efficiency, deep sleep and dream sleep tend to decline.
“Healthy older persons wake up from sleep more frequently than younger persons do,” Aguillon says, “but they have no greater difficulty falling back to sleep. Also, older persons tend to go to bed earlier in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning than younger persons.”
Sleep apnea, insomnia and restless legs syndrome become more prevalent with age. Additionally, there are non-sleep related diseases that can develop as one grows older. Cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, chronic pain conditions, dementia, and menopause can all impact sleep quality. Individuals can also experience restless sleep as a side effect of medications they start taking.
While some devices are already commonly used to treat sleep disorders at all stages of life, such as the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) for sleep apnea, there are many new methods being developed. This is what most inspires Aguillon. Recently, he has used volume-assured pressure support therapy, a non-invasive ventilation method, to treat people with serious breathing issues like COPD and neuromuscular diseases.
“I am proud to say that our sleep center was one of the first in the nation and the first in our area to utilize this technology,” Aguillon says. “We have been quite successful with this technology, improving quality of life and delaying the use of tracheotomy.”
Aguillon’s most recent research focuses on new methods for treating primary insomnia, which is insomnia not caused by a medical issue or substance-related issue. He says this condition is particularly challenging to treat because this type of disorder is not well understood, but Aguillion believes the key may lie in the neurotransmitters that are released at the end of the nerve fiber in the brain.
“What I would like to see being developed is a measurement of the concentration of the various sleep-promoting and wake-promoting neurotransmitters in the blood or cerebrospinal fluid,” Aguillon says. “This would give us sleep clinicians a biochemical profile of the patient’s sleep-wake and we can direct therapy toward the specific neurotransmitter excess or deficiency.”
While the technology catches up with the theory, Aguillon continues his practice at the Regional Center for Sleep Medicine with colleagues who have various backgrounds and disciplines including internal medicine, pulmonary/critical care medicine, neurology and psychiatry. This team approach allows him to collaborate and address medical as well as psychosocial factors that affect sleep and total health.
Maria Lubanovic is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
About the Expert
Andre U. Aguillon, MD, DABSM is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Sleep Medicine. He received his medical degree from the University of Toledo College of Medicine where he also completed his residency and fellowship program. Dr. Aguillion currently practices with The Regional Center for Sleep Medicine, affiliated with the University of Toledo College of Medicine, which is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary sleep/wake disorders center, accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). He also serves as assistant professor among the faculty at the University of Toledo.
