The clocks rolled back early Sunday morning as Daylight Saving Time ended, marking another season of shorter days and unintentional early rising. So, how can people maintain a healthy sleep schedule and adjust to the new time without much difficulty? Dr. Tanya DeSanto, dental director for the Prairie Sleep Center, spoke with Local Edition to share some tips.
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Steve Michaels
We're with Dr. [Tanya] DeSanto at the Prairie Sleep Center here in Springfield on NPR Illinois, 91.9 UIS. What is it that before or as a part of a visit to the Prairie Sleep Center that they can try at home to at least get over the hump of the time change of these darker days? And is that a thing? I mean, is there a psychological component here with Dr. TikTok says there is probably, but I mean, what's your expert opinion?
Tanya DeSanto
I'm not a fan of TikTok, but Dr. TikTok might be onto something here because there is a lot of truth to that. I can't believe I'm saying that, but there is a lot of truth to that, Dr. TikTok. So circadian rhythm is a huge issue, whether you're traveling to a different time zone or perhaps your own time zone is changing with daylight savings time. There's a lot of things people can do, even people that don't have sleep apnea. it can really wear you out, just going to Central Illinois to the West Coast. when I was speaking at a conference last month, I was up at 3:00 in the morning waiting for the rest of the world to wake up. So, there's a lot of truth to that and your body is very much adapting to your own rhythm. And so when that rhythm is disturbed from time zone changes or even too much caffeine at night, various things will stir up your circadian rhythm. You know, caffeine is a drug. A drug will change things. A clock will change things. So different things you can do at home, even if you don't have sleep apnea. there's a lot of things. There's just restful sleep. We call this sleep hygiene, where you just create your sleep environment. You turn off the screens. How many of us? use their screens laying in bed. I'm guilty of this, especially if you're a parent, you leave your phone next to you because you want to make sure your kids, don't need you. I mean, how many times are we going to bed before our kids? In my family, it's like 100% of the time. So, we want to make sure the kids are home safe or if something happens, you just keep it next to you for emergencies. Things like this, you create your own sleep environment. You keep your room dark. You keep all the blue lights turned off. Melatonin is a great supplement if you really struggle with going to sleep that can really, really help you a lot. Even simple things like when you're laying down, you're about to go to bed, maybe a little chamomile tea to create that sleep environment. These things are amazing assets to help you sleep better. And some of these things really become important during the twice a year where our community changes our clocks. So you get groggy for a couple of days as your circadian rhythm adjusts itself. It will always adjust itself, but we all know that does take time. So you just have to kind of be an advocate and try to problem solve those issues knowing they're coming up. if you're going to be in a different time zone or daylight savings time is coming up. So the little tricks can really help your body adapt so that you're not just so groggy for 48 hours after this event would happen. So these are things we recommend to people and we recommend these same things for people that even have sleep apnea because along with the oral appliance therapy, these other things are great assets to better sleep.
Steve Michaels
Dr. DeSanto, what do you focus on mostly at the Prairie Sleep Center for those who have never heard of your workout on the west side?
Tanya DeSanto
We as sleep dentists, we are actually on the team of the physician. We are actually, even though we are dentists in the state of Illinois, every state is different. The regulations and the laws are different in every state. But in Illinois, we are actually durable medical equipment providers. So we actually are on the team of the physician. We only make sleep appliances when the prescription comes to us from the physician. So we make the appliance and then send the patient back to their physician so they can get tested to make sure the sleep appliance is working properly. So Like I said, if we have a patient in our dental chair and we really know they probably have sleep apnea, they need a sleep study. Everybody needs a sleep study before they get that diagnosis.
Steve Michaels
And that's beyond the sleep quiz. Is that beyond the sleep quiz where you're overnight somewhere and they monitor you as you're sleeping or is that the same thing you talked about initially?
Tanya DeSanto
No, that's a good question. The quiz is just a little trigger for us to move forward with the next step. The quiz is just a simple little thing that gets us going down the right path to help the patient with their problem. When we know there might be a problem and we see there's a red flag going on, a few different avenues will be taken. So they need a sleep study to get their diagnosis and there's a few ways they can do that. You can go to the hospital overnight. You can go to your physician or we here at Prairie Sleep Center can give you a sleep test. We can do that here as a sleep dentist. So it's a It's a little it's called the watch pad and you put it over your wrist and you go to sleep and the results are downloaded in the morning and we can tell you if you have sleep apnea in 24 hours. It's a very simple, simple thing. It didn't used to be so simple. You know, there's still very good reasons for the hospital overnight test. I am a big fan of that. So if someone has a lot of medical problems, we need a lot more information. But if you are fairly healthy, you don't have a lot of comorbidities, maybe you don't have heart failure or lung issues or a lot of autoimmune problems, we can just give that sleep study to you to take home. and then you just dispose of it. comes in a recyclable little envelope where they recycle the packaging. You mail that in, and we go to the cloud and we can read your sleep study. It's read by a sleep physician, a pulmonologist, or a radiologist, and then we get those results.
Steve Michaels
Oh, doctor, go ahead, go ahead.
Tanya DeSanto
Well, if you do have a diagnosis, then we can move forward and make your appliance. It can be that easy.
Steve Michaels
So for those that have CPAPs now, Is there a scenario where, and this might be why some people don't even want to get a sleep test or even ask about it because they don't want to have the CPAP device or taken on vacation in and in. Is there a horizon or a change that could come in the future where someone who uses CPAP won't have to use it anymore?
Tanya DeSanto
To be honest, we are huge fans of CPAP machines. I know the public is not, but as healthcare providers, we are. It is the gold standard. We never want to take somebody off of a CPAP that's doing fine on their CPAP machine. We're just filling a niche for the people that can't handle it. The CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure. And there are so many situations that a person needs oxygen pushed into them. We fill a niche because if you can breathe your own oxygen and you don't need oxygen pushed into you, a mouth appliance might be a great answer for you. But if you have a lot of health problems, cardiac issues, lung issues like I talked about before, where you actually need oxygen, You need that CPAP. Not everybody's a candidate for an oral appliance.
Steve Michaels
And a CPAP, a CPAP isn't an oxygen tank. I mean, it's just a small pump that helps. It's just taking air out of your space or your room and working with your lungs and your natural breathing rhythm to help you breathe better at night.
Tanya DeSanto
Yes, it's just pushing oxygen into you because you can't get it on your own. It's opening up your airway and giving you the oxygen that you're lacking when you sleep. And a lot of people, people need that. It is the gold standard because it is totally effective. The problem is that there's, not to get too scientific, but you've got compliance and you've got efficacy. So, which one has a better compliance? Obviously, the mouth appliance. People have no problem wearing it. They can tuck it in their bag. They can take it on travel trips.
Steve Michaels
Especially over the holidays, it doesn't add to your carry-on limits specifically because it's a medical device. So that's not going to interfere with travel. These are fairly small and compact when they're in their little carrying cases. And this is something I think, especially with this time of year and the time changes, Dr. DeSanto at the Prairie Sleep Center, how do people get in touch with you or what's your website here in Springfield?
Tanya DeSanto
Emily is our sleep coordinator and if you have any questions about this or if it's a candidate for you or you just don't know how to get started, you can totally give her a call and we're at 217-546-0412. We have a website as well and a Facebook page at prairiesleepcenter.com and you can learn all about these things. And I think if it's something you're thinking about, it definitely is a game changer.
Steve Michaels
We're with Dr. DeSanto at the Prairie Sleep Center here in Springfield out on the west side. This is NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS. Dr. DeSanto, where is the Prairie Sleep Center?
Tanya DeSanto
We are located directly across from where TGI Friday's used to be. We're right on the corner of Greenbrier and West White Oaks Drive, and we share the building with Prairie Dental Group, where you share half of that building with our sister office. And thank you so much for having me, by the way, because we're very excited about getting the word out regarding oral appliance therapy. There are just so many people out there that are struggling with their CPAP machines. And it's really a health risk if you're not getting the oxygen you need to breathe. So we like to get the word out as a public service announcement more and more. We advocate for this therapy so much. We lecture to different physicians in town and nationally. We also lecture, I personally lecture a lot of our national meetings, like the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, as well as various study groups around the country. So we just really want to get the word out there. And there's a lot of board certified sleep dentists like myself. in the country. My partners, Dr. Elizabeth Knadler and Dr. Allison Long, we are three of the board-certified sleep dentists in central Illinois. I think we could possibly be the only ones in the area for quite a while, but we stay busy. A lot of physicians refer to us because they're struggling with their own patient populations when They see the health of their patients failing, and they know the need for CPAP therapy, and they also know the patients aren't wearing their CPAP devices. So, we fill that niche beautifully.
Steve Michaels
Dr. Sata, thank you so much for spending time with us. I feel more relaxed and awake already just thinking about it.
Tanya DeSanto
Well, thanks so much for having me. We love the opportunity to get the word out. So, I appreciate you.
