askthesleepexpert

This is an answer to Ernie’s question. Ernie has problems sleeping at night and is supposed to be wearing a CPAP.

There are some individuals that we consider to be hyper-vigilant. And what I mean by this is at night when you’re going to sleep your brain makes a chemical. It’s called Gaba. Gaba turns the brain off, makes us sleep, relaxes our muscles, we conserve energy, we don’t use as much oxygen and our body temperature drops. In some people the Gaba doesn’t work. And when the Gaba doesn’t work, these individuals can have trouble going to sleep or maintaining sleep, they may awaken easily and have trouble going back to sleep again. We as clinicians evaluate these individuals and develop strategies which are behavioral as well as certain medications which may help the individual consolidate their sleep. And if you also snore and have Sleep Apnea and have to wear a CPAP Device then that causes more stimulation and which aggravates someone who is already what we call hyper-vigilant.