Finding a Sleep Specialist in Austin

Finding help for sleep in Austin presents a dizzying array of choices. An Austin sleep specialist breaks down the options.

Austin has no shortage of specialists of all varieties. But you know that situation where too many choices lead to paralysis and walking away having chosen nothing? 

There was actually an experiment conducted in 2000 that illustrated this using jam in a supermarket.  Shoppers could approach a table offering 24 types of jam or a table offering 6 types of jam. The former table garnered more interest but people generally walked away having purchased no jam. Despite less interest overall, the table with fewer choices had more purchasers.

Finding a sleep specialist in Austin feels like choosing between 24 types of jam. How can you possibly make the right decision?

I want to help you find a sleep specialist in Austin

Let’s say you’re having trouble sleeping. Do you go to your primary care doctor? A sleep lab? A regular old talk therapist? A cursory Google search for “sleep specialist Austin” returns over 9 million results. Scroll past the sponsored posts and you start seeing providers. Some are doctors at large clinics. Others are therapists in small private practices. There are even apps that promise they can help you sleep better.

I wrote a blog post explaining the differences between psychiatrists, therapists, and other mental health providers. To read about Finding Mental Health Care in Austin, go here.

In this post, I will explain how to get help for sleep issues. It is very important to consider why a person is not sleeping when deciding how to address it.

What’s keeping you up at night? An Austin sleep specialist can help you get to the bottom of it.

Insomnia

People with insomnia have formed a habit of taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep, being awake for more than 30 minutes throughout the night, and/or waking earlier than they would like with inability to return to sleep. They also have distress about their lack of sleep and feel like they are not functioning well during the day because of it. 

Insomnia is best addressed with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. A sleep study isn’t needed to diagnose insomnia and likely won’t provide any useful data if only insomnia is suspected. That’s because insomnia is behavioral and a sleep study can’t measure someone’s behavior. It also can’t measure how worried someone is about their sleep. Medications can help in the short-term but usually wane in efficacy over time. Insomnia is a learned behavior that’s become a habit so behavior change is necessary for real and sustainable relief.

Melatonin is not recommended for insomnia. It is sometimes recommended for circadian rhythm issues (see below.) Melatonin is not a hypnotic which means it won’t put you to sleep. Hypnotics are drugs like Ambien or Lunesta. Melatonin is considered a chronobiologic which means it can be used to shift the timing of when you are sleepy and when you are alert.

Sleep Apnea

People with sleep apnea are prone to dozing off when they don’t want to. If this happens to you, a sleep specialist in Austin can help you figure it out.

People with sleep apnea are not getting enough sleep because they stop breathing during the night causing awakenings. An apnea is an interruption in breathing that lasts at least 10 seconds. There are also hypopneas which are reductions in breathing lasting at least 10 seconds. A person with mild sleep apnea will have 5-15 of these apneas or hypopneas per hour of sleep. When you stop breathing, your brain tells your body to wake up. You breathe again. You fall back asleep. Start having more apneas or hypopneas. Rinse. Repeat.

People with sleep apnea are not stringing together any reasonable amount of sleep. Consequently, these people tend to fall asleep unintentionally during the day. The gold standard treatment for sleep apnea is Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) and a sleep study is necessary for diagnosis. Contrary to insomnia, a sleep study is highly useful if sleep apnea is suspected. A sleep study can tell you exactly how frequently you stop breathing during sleep. Once diagnosed and set up with a machine, a therapist who specializes in sleep issues can provide support for adhering to CPAP. It’s not any easy thing to adjust to.

It’s possible to have both sleep apnea and insomnia. We call in COMISA in the field. Sometimes someone is using their CPAP as directed and still can’t sleep. CPAP is a breathing treatment, not a sleep treatment, so it will not fix insomnia.

Circadian Rhythm Issues

Circadian rhythm issues come down to the timing of your sleep-wake cycle not lining up with your schedule. It is possible to shift your circadian rhythm and a sleep specialist in Austin can help.

Some people think they have insomnia when they actually have a circadian rhythm disorder. Your circadian rhythm determines the timing of sleep and wakefulness. A typical adult falls asleep between 10-11 pm and wakes up between 6-7 am. Some people skew 1-2 hours earlier (we call them larks) and some people skew 1-2 hours later (we call them owls.) These people would still be considered within normal limits.

Then there are people on the edges. On one edge, they just cannot fall asleep earlier than 1 am or wake up earlier than 9 am. If allowed to go to bed and get up when desired, they sleep well. But their lives usually dictate that they go to bed and get up earlier than their circadian rhythm prefers. This is called Delayed Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder. It’s more common in younger people.

On the the other edge, there are people who find it incredibly difficult to stay awake past 9 pm and will easily wake up before 5 am. If allowed to go to bed and get up when desired, they sleep well. These people have Advanced Sleep-Wake Phase Disorder. It’s more common in older people.

In my practice, I see more complaints of Delayed Sleep Phase than Advanced Sleep Phase. I think this is due to societal attitudes about staying up late and sleeping late as unhealthy or irresponsible. Ben Franklin was a wise man, but he was no sleep expert.

These people don’t exactly have a sleep issue. They have a world-not-lining-up-with-how-their-body-prefers-to-sleep issue. If your sleep schedule causes no fallout in your life, and you otherwise sleep well, you don’t have a disorder. Some people are able to build their lives around their preferred schedule.

Those with Delayed Sleep Phase struggle to get to class or work on time and may have lost jobs or had to drop out of school because they could not show up on time. Those with Advanced Sleep Phase are primarily impacted socially. They miss out on fun nights out because they just can’t stay awake.

These disorders are treated with a combination of properly-timed light exposure and melatonin. 

Hypersomnia

People with hypersomnia are always sleepy no matter how much they sleep. A sleep specialist in Austin can help you figure out where to go from here.

Sometimes the problem can be that you sleep too much and too well, which can be its own problem. People with forms of hypersomnia (including narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia) can fall asleep almost instantly, sleep for a long time, and yet still feel like they didn’t get enough sleep. More isn’t always better.

These disorders are treated with medication (typically a stimulant) which helps with daytime sleepiness. CBT for Hypersomnia is a helpful adjunct for improving quality of life and managing mood or anxiety symptoms.

A sleep study is necessary to diagnose narcolepsy and distinguish between narcolepsy I, narcolepsy II, and idiopathic hypersomnia.

Others

There is a whole host of other things that can go awry during sleep (nightmares, restless legs, acting out your dreams.) Some of these need a sleep study to diagnose and others can be diagnosed with an interview.

A free consultation with a sleep specialist in Austin

You want support from someone who understands how to treat sleep issues. Treatment for sleep issues is about properly assessing the problem and then providing the right treatment. I am a sleep specialist in Austin. Click here to schedule a free consultation with a sleep specialist in Austin if this sounds like something you need.