Sleep is more than just a period of time when you’re not awake. Studies conducted over the past several decades have revealed that sleep has distinctive states that cycle throughout the night. Your brain stays active throughout sleep, but different things happen during each stage. For instance, certain stages of sleep are needed for you to feel well rested and other stages help you to learn.

"Adequate sleep is as important as diet and exercise, and only a relatively small percentage of people are getting what sleep experts believe is an adequate amount of sleep," says Steve Gardner, director of marketing for the Sleep Wellness Institute and executive director of the Reggie White Sleep Disorders Foundation in West Allis. "Adults need at least seven to eight hours of sleep each night and teenagers and children need more."

Not only does the quantity of our sleep matter, but the quality is important, too. People whose sleep is interrupted or cut short might not get enough of certain stages of sleep, leading to health and performance problems. Not getting enough sleep has been tied to depression, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and certain risk behaviors like cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy drinking.

If you aren’t getting enough rest, your bedroom could be the culprit. "You want to make sure to create a restful environment," Gardner says. "Remove anything that is distracting from sleep, such as a TV, computer or even a radio. Make sure your window coverings are adequate and keep the temperature down."

With any luck, creating a more conducive sleep environment will help you get the rest you need. "If you are still waking up tired or feel very sleepy during the day, you might have a sleep disorder," says Karen Block, a respiratory therapist and owner of Endeavor Therapy Sleep Center in Mequon. In fact, more than 18 million Americans have sleep apnea or sleep disordered breathing. Sleep apnea occurs when a person stops breathing while asleep, for a few seconds or more up to 30 times in an hour, due to throat tissue collapsing and the airway becoming blocked. It can also happen because the brain is not sending consistent messages to the body to breathe, Block says.

The symptoms of sleep apnea include loud snoring, choking during sleep, morning headaches, memory impairment, mood disturbances, daytime fatigue and excessive daytime sleepiness. "Obese men over 50 are the most common sufferers of sleep apnea, but we are finding a growing number of men and women of all ages and all sizes with sleep apnea," Block says.

There are a variety of treatments for sleep apnea, depending on an individual’s medical history and the severity of the disorder. "The first step is a sleep study, typically ordered by a physician. We can usually determine their problem in one night," Block says.

Most treatment regimens begin with lifestyle changes, such as avoiding alcohol, losing weight and quitting smoking. Some people are helped by special pillows that keep them from sleeping on their backs, or oral appliances to keep the airway open during sleep. If these methods don’t work, doctors often recommend continuous positive airway pressure, in which a face mask is attached to a tube and a machine that blows pressurized air into the mask and through the airway to keep it open. 

Ironically, Gardner was one of the millions who suffer from sleep apnea, but didn’t realize it. "I had been working at the Sleep Wellness Center for a short time and my wife told me that I was a prime candidate for a sleep study because I was snoring loudly at night. I had the sleep study and discovered I had moderate to severe sleep apnea," he says. "I didn’t realize how bad I felt until I was fitted for a CPAP mask and started using it. I have so much more energy now."

For people who have a snoring problem or mild sleep apnea that does not require a CPAP device, a mouthpiece or oral appliance may help. Dr. Sandra Casper of Milwaukee is a dentist who works with the medical community to custom fit patients for these oral appliances. "After we have an accurate diagnosis, we do a comprehensive oral exam to determine if the patient is a candidate for an oral appliance, and that can depend on their oral and dental health. Then a decision is made as to what appliance is appropriate for the patient," she says.

The oral appliances made by Casper are FDA-approved and look similar to an orthodontic retainer. "The mouthpiece attempts to open a person’s airway by adjusting the position of the lower jaw and tongue. Patients find these appliances very easy to get used to, which is not always the case with the CPAP devices," Casper says.

"Very often people with sleeping disorders don’t even realize they have a problem until a loved one tells them that they snore, snort or stop breathing for short periods, which brings them to the doctor," Casper says. "Although sleep disorders can be serious, it’s important to remember that they can be treated."