According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 10 percent of American adults have chronic insomnia. Since they typically have difficulty falling or staying asleep, these individuals often feel tired and sleepy throughout the day. If this sounds familiar to you, you may want to talk with the specialists at McLaren-Macomb's Sleep Disorders Center.

Established more than 20 years ago, the Sleep Disorders Center performed nearly 1,000 sleep studies in 2009. The center has four comfortable beds, each with a private bathroom, and typically operates Monday through Friday, with most testing performed overnight. The center does some daytime testing, especially for shift workers who are accustomed to sleeping during the day.

Upon arrival at the center, each patient is greeted by a polysomnographic technologist, who escorts the patient to a private room and offers refreshments prior to the start of the evaluation. The technologist explains the procedure and helps the patient become comfortable with the process.

A sleep study monitors and records several physiologic functions during sleep, including brain wave activity, eye movement, oxygen blood levels, heart rate and rhythm, and breathing rate and rhythm. The test also records the flow of air through the mouth and nose, snoring, body muscle movements, chest and abdominal movement. By capturing this data, the center's team can make an accurate diagnosis.

The center's most prevalent diagnosis is obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that causes the patient to temporarily stop breathing for multiple periods of time. Another condition the test can reveal is restless leg syndrome, which results in leg muscle jerks that can interrupt sleep.

The center recently added a new sleep monitoring system to help physicians more accurately and completely diagnose a variety of health problems related to sleep. Through this new technology, patients receive more accurate monitoring and more comfortable testing. The new system also helps patients by providing more comprehensive information to aid physicians in diagnosing and treating sleep disorders. The new system can also monitor for specific heart rate issues that are associated with diseases such as heart failure and diabetes.

If you think a sleep study may be helpful for you, talk with your physician. All sleep studies require a physician's prescription. If you don't have a physician, call McLaren-Macomb's Doctor Connection, at (877) 627-6248.