Iowa Sleep Blog

  People would question me on how I was able to stay awake all night when I worked the night shift.  Thankfully, I never had to work a rotating shift or change from a somewhat continuous night schedule.  Let’s discuss a few things I personally felt helped me succeed at working a night shift.     -Wear dark sunglasses on the way home. I actually have heard of individuals wearing welding glasses…

What is OSA? Obstructive Sleep Apnea is characterized as the complete or partial closure of the airway despite your body trying to breathe. When you fall asleep the muscles of the upper airway will relax and gravity will cause the tongue to fall back in the throat and occlude the airway further.  These periods of not breathing can last anywhere from 10 seconds to over a minute in severe…

Good afternoon everyone, Just wanted to make everyone aware of our Monday, June 3rd, evening community event.  This event will be at Iowa CPAP, right next door to our West Des Moines Office at 4060 Westown Parkway. Iowa CPAP will be present to perform a function check of your equipment and discuss care and cleaning of these items. Equipment will not be sold that evening but you may schedule an…

I think many of us have seen fainting goats or the you tube video of the cute dog having a fainting attack and assume that is what describes narcolepsy.  However, narcolepsy is a condition with a vast array of symptoms.  Not every individual with narcolepsy has those "fainting attacks" also known as cataplexy.  Narcolepsy is actually as common as being diagnosed with Parkinsons or MS. Narcolepsy…

I sat down last evening to see if I could find something interesting to watch on TV as I prepared to start my wind down ritual.  I came across the most hilarious thing. Who would of thought the commercials we see today would come up with something new and have us laughing right out loud. Not to endorse any name brands, but here is the link: Tempurpedic has captured my attention. The commercial…

Federal advisory panel on Wednesday endorsed  Suvorexant (Merck product). FDA may approve by this fall.   Suvorexant belongs to a new class to insomnia agents which block orexin. Orexin is a excitatory neurotransmitter.    This would be the first in a new class and it works in a different manner than currently available drugs for insomnia.   Before this we had agents that: 1)  increased GABA…

Hello, my name is Deanna and I am going to be one of the main contributors of this blog.  My intentions of this blog are to have a casual gathering area of support and information to our patients, their loved ones and whomever would like to join us.  Feel free to ask questions, bring up topics you would like to discuss or maybe even share your story with us.  I am very excited about this journey…

So I was climbing out of bed this morning with a jolt as my Rooster alarm clock went off.  I dismiss my alarm and then secondly I turn off my sound machine.  It is quite humorous to think how addicted I've become to this little white box, I once received at a work Christmas party.  I love it.  I have found that if I crawl into bed, and lay there thinking about numerous items, it immediately dawns…