If you’re an adult in America, chances are you’re not getting the sleep you need. In fact, six out of 10 of us have a sleep disorder, and most of those are undiagnosed and untreated. Lack of good shut-eye not only can make you tired, irritable and forgetful, it can put you on track for serious health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke.
Understanding What’s Keeping You Up
Your sleep issue might be caused by several factors, even another medical condition. At Central Maine Healthcare, we specialize in diagnosing and treating a wide range of sleep disorders. Your care starts with a conversation with one of our pulmonologists, because there’s a strong connection between breathing and sleep. Together, you can talk through your specific symptoms and concerns.
Depending on your needs, we may then recommend an overnight sleep study. Think of it as a little getaway: you’ll spend the night in one of our eight private sleep rooms, including your own bath and shower. At Central Maine Healthcare, we take your comfort up a notch; whether you sleep better in a room that’s chilly or warm, your own temperature control lets you regulate the heat in your private space.
While you sleep, machines will monitor your blood oxygen levels, leg and arm movement, and other factors that affect your sound sleep. With that data, we’ll zero in on the reasons why you’re not getting the sleep you need, and get you started on the road to a far better quality of life.
Central Maine Sleep Medicine
60 High Street, Lower Level
Lewiston, ME
(207) 786-1888
Practice Hours
Sunday: closed
Monday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Thursday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Saturday: closed
About
The Central Maine Sleep Center team is made up of board-certified sleep medicine specialists and highly trained technologists, all dedicated to helping patients sleep better. We offer many special services including evaluation of sleep disordered breathing, narcolepsy, sleepwalking, limb movements and insomnia.
The center has eight comfortable sleep rooms, all equipped with Sleep Number beds. Each room has individual temperature controls and a private bath and shower for the purpose of making you feel as much at home as possible. The sleep lab also offers at-home testing.
Learn more about sleep disorders and treatments.
| Providers Lauren Brown, NP Sleep Medicine | Rachel Card, FNP Sleep Medicine | Trustin Ennacheril, MD Sleep Medicine |
Sleep Disorders
Treating sleep disorders can be tricky, because so often the symptoms — fatigue, difficulty concentrating, struggling to fall asleep and so many more – are also symptoms of other disorders. It takes highly trained sleep specialists to pinpoint your specific problem and get you back to feeling your energetic best.
When you notice sleep-related symptoms, reach out to the experts at Central Maine Healthcare. Our board-certified pulmonologists use the latest tests and techniques to determine how to help you sleep well and improve your overall health and wellness. That includes access to our fully accredited sleep center in Lewiston, one of the most elegant sleep study sites in the country.
Comprehensive Care for Sleep Apnea
The treatment of choice for sleep apnea is using a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) or BiPAP Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure) machine, which deliver pressurized air through a mask to keep your airways open. Central Maine offers the latest state-of-the-art options to maximize effectiveness and your comfort.
If that doesn’t resolve the problem after a 3-month trial period, your provider may recommend surgery to remove the tissue that’s restricting your airway when you sleep. Central Maine Healthcare surgeons specialize in newer, minimally invasive procedures that use radiofrequency energy to shrink the tissue — especially effective for mild to moderate sleep apnea.
Lifestyle Support for a Better Night’s Sleep
Every day, you make choices that affect the way you’ll sleep that night. For most sleep disorders, those choices can make all the difference between feeling rested the next day, and feeling sluggish.
Your sleep medicine specialist at Central Maine can provide the education, support and resources you need for healthier living and better sleep. For most sleep conditions, habits like smoking — or drinking coffee or alcohol shortly before you go to bed — is likely to keep you up at night. Heavy meals can also interrupt your sleep; a big bowl of pasta might make you sleepy, but so many dense carbs make your body work harder to digest the food—and when your body is working hard, it may not want to relax into a deep sleep.
Relaxation techniques such as yoga, deep breathing and meditation can help relax your body and mind, and better prepare it for a night of rest. Other lifestyle strategies, such as a keeping to a regular sleep schedule, moderate exercise, hot showers at night and massage can support good sleep, too.
Medicine Can Help You Sleep
As part of your treatment plan, your provider may recommend drug therapy to help you sleep.
Often, over-the-counter remedies will do the job. In other instances, prescription meds are the best treatment, including medications for narcolepsy that stimulate your central nervous system and prevent you from suddenly falling asleep during the day. If your narcolepsy is more serious, you could be prescribed an amphetamine-like medication; such drugs bring more side effects, but they also are more powerful weapons against your disorder.
If you’re diagnosed with restless leg syndrome, your first medication line of defense many be an anti-seizure drug to curb your involuntary leg movements. Less favorable—but prescribed if necessary—are drugs that can boost the effects of dopamine in your brain; these medications can trigger help the brain send messages to your legs to lie still.
As with all of Central Maine Healthcare’s programs, individual counseling is a vital part of your treatment. We’ll make sure you understand why you haven’t been sleeping, and how we can work together to change that.