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Discussing Sleep Problems With Your Doctor

Summary & Participants

Millions of Americans don't sleep well. And many of them don't do anything about it. But the answer is as close as the telephone. Experts suggest that seeing a doctor is the best way to get sleeping back on track. Today there is a wide range of options to turn around the problem of poor sleep. Learn what's available and toss and turn no more.

Medically Reviewed On: May 07, 2008

Webcast Transcript

RAFAEL PELAYO, MD: The true impact of poor quality of sleep on the quality of life of individuals in United States or throughout the world is actually probably impossible to truly calculate. But there is a certain amount of human suffering that goes on with these sleep problems.

ANNOUNCER: And poor sleep is something that affects approximately 60 million Americans annually. Yet many people ignore the problem.

RAFAEL PELAYO, MD: Studies show that people who suffer from insomnia typically wait about twelve years before they seek medical help.

SAUL ROTHENBERG, PhD: It's quite amazing, but it turns out that more than half of people with chronic insomnia never talk to a health professional about their sleep problem. Some of the reasons that we speculate-lack of discussion would be the fact that people feel that sleep problems are a part of life. And that this is something that they need to endure or they should endure or that they should be able to solve their sleep problems on their own.

ANNOUNCER: But it's not just the grin and bear it attitude that prevents people who sleep poorly from seeking help.

SAUL ROTHENBERG, PhD: For some people, there may be a stigma about going to the doctor to discuss a sleep problem, because there is an awareness that there is a relation between people with emotional problems and sleep problems. And it is the case that when people have emotional problems, they are more likely to have a sleep problem than people without an emotional problem. However, that by no means means that a person who has a sleep problem necessarily has an emotional problem.

RAFAEL PELAYO, MD: Another stigma sometimes associated with this is taking medication. That if you go see the doctor, he's just going to give you pills and taking pills is bad, it's sinful; you're going to get addicted.

ANNOUNCER: And while older classes of prescription medications might have had many unwanted side effects, a newer class called non-benzodiazepines are much improved.

MICHAEL THORPY, MD: We now understand the causes of sleep difficulties far better than we did in the past. And we have far better treatments available. So patients that are concerned about whether their physician is going to be able to handle their sleep problems should be reassured that physicians are far better equipped to be able to deal with these problems now.

ANNOUNCER: In years past, there were few options a doctor could offer.

MICHAEL THORPY, MD: Unfortunately, we tend to have come from a time when, although people had sleep problems, they didn't have many ways of dealing with them, and most physicians really didn't understand much about sleep disorders.

SAUL ROTHENBERG, PhD: In the last thirty years, we've developed many non-medication strategies that are very effective for dealing with sleep problems.

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