St. Peter opens new center to test for sleep disorders

The six bedrooms at the new Sleep Center of Southwest Washington look like any other hotel suite, except for the stack of electrode-like wires hanging on the wall.

"We like to simulate that homelike feeling," said Dennis Jensen, administrator of the clinic, which had its grand opening Thursday. "We recommend patients bring their own pillow and their favorite blanket."

The $1 million, 5,000-square-foot center in an outpatient complex at Providence St. Peter Hospital tests people for sleep disorders. The most common reason for testing is suspected sleep apnea, a disorder where a breathing problem wakes a person up many times a night — some as often as 300 times — for up to 10 seconds each time.

The patient usually doesn't remember waking up, although a spouse might complain of the partner's snoring, or might notice that the person stops breathing.

"You think you slept, but it's not restful sleep," Jensen said. "Many people don't know they have it, and they don't take it seriously."

Jensen and Dr. John Brottem, who founded St. Peter's original sleep center in 1986, say apnea is a serious health problem that is on the rise as the population becomes more obese. The disorder is leading to an increase in car accidents, because the main symptom of apnea is feeling sleepy and falling asleep involuntarily during the day.

In addition, apnea can cause stroke, high blood pressure and heart attack, as the heart and lungs become oxygen-deprived and have to work harder to pump blood.

Apnea results in a loss of rapid-eye-movement, or REM-stage sleep, the deepest level. The REM deficit can lead to serious daytime fatigue and mood changes, Brottem said. Without REM sleep, the brain cannot process all of the electrical signals it picked up during the day, Brottem said.

"The brain is like the Target warehouse in Lacey — all day long huge trucks are coming in," Brottem said. "At night, the trucks don't come anymore, but the forklifts are inside, moving things around."

The new sleep center, remodeled from a prior cardiology office, tests an average of four to six patients a night, seven nights a week. Up to 2,000 people are expected to be tested this year, Jensen said. The cost of the testing is around $4,200, which is covered by most health insurance plans.

Patients arrive between 6:30 and 8 p.m. After getting their bedrooms arranged, they have wire sensors for electrical impulses pasted on their heads, with other monitors strapped on their waists and chests. After several hours of watching TV, working on their computers or otherwise relaxing, the patients go to sleep.

About 11 p.m., the technicians, sitting in a central control room at a bank of computer monitors, begin checking the patients' brains' electrical impulses, signalling what stage of sleep the person is in. Other monitors also check blood pressure and oxygen levels.

At some point, technicians wake the patients and put a mask on their faces. The mask is called a continuous positive airway pressure unit. If the CPAP helps to keep the airways open and prevent the patient from waking up, then the patient is a good candidate to take home a CPAP unit to use indefinitely to relieve the apnea.

At the same time, patients are advised to make lifestyle changes to cure apnea, such as losing weight or eliminating prescription narcotic pain pills.

The sleep center, the largest such facility in South Sound according to Brottem, also tests for narcolepsy — a neurological disorder that affects the control of sleep and wakefulness — and restless leg syndrome. Other testing involves several types of insomnia — such as inability to fall asleep or trouble staying asleep.

"There's a lot more understanding these days about the importance of getting good-quality sleep," Brottem said. "Still, today, people today go in to a doctor and say they're having trouble sleeping, and they get a sleeping pill."

Brottem said he doesn't prescribe sleeping pills. His treatment ranges from giving advice on sleep-promoting lifestyle changes to testing for apnea and, if needed, the CPAP.

The St. Peter center, formerly in a small basement area in another building, in 1992 became the second sleep facility to be accredited in Washington. With the recent addition of three new technicians, it employs 13 staff members, not including Brottem or colleagues Dr. Jerry Hermanson and Dr. Robert Huck.

Elsewhere in South Sound, Capital Medical Center, on Olympia's west side, discontinued its sleep laboratory several years ago. However, the hospital is home for private practices for several respiratory specialists — or pulmonologists — who are trained in treating sleep disorders, Capital Medical Center spokeswoman Renee Crotty said.

Dr. Joel Black and Dr. Austin Lampert have their offices in a medical office building on the hospital campus, Crotty said.

Keri Brenner writes for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5435 or kbrenner@theolympian.com.