By Christine de Kock
WESTERN Hospital is not lying down on the job when it comes to sleep disorder issues.
The hospital’s Dr David Cunnington was top of his class when he sat a recent exam in America to qualify as an International Behavioural Sleep Medicine Specialist.
The exam was taken by 29 behavioural sleep medicine specialists from around the world.
Dr Cunnington said he was pleased to achieve good grades as it showed the quality of doctors at Western Hospital.
“To sit the exam you have to be a qualified sleep specialist,” Dr David said.
“This is one way to see how we are travelling. If you do pretty good at an exam like this, it shows the level of expertise at Western Hospital is at world-class standard.”
Dr Cunnington has worked as a specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Disorders Medicine at Western Hospital since late 2000.
“People come to us if they can’t sleep or if they sleep too much,” he said.
He said common sleep disorders included jet lag and insomnia but the hospital also treated a number of unique sleep disorders.
“Last week we had a case of nocturnal eating syndrome,” he said.
“The person would wake up at night with an uncontrollable hunger.”
Dr Cunnington said the body’s hunger rhythms and sleep rhythms were usually synchronised.
“When this is not the case we can manipulate meals, the person can eat more calories earlier,” he said.
“A person can also go to sleep later in the day to change the rhythms. Medication also helps.”
Another unusual case was presented at the sleep disorders unit last week. It involved a man who had been involved in a car accident three years ago.
“He said he had biting pains all over his body that would awaken him from sleep,” Dr Cunnington said.
Doctors didn’t take him seriously and couldn’t find a physical cause for his complaints.
“We brought him into the unit and observed his sleeping patterns and you could see his arms and legs showing jerking movements every 10 to 20 seconds. That was clearly abnormal.”
Dr Cunnington said that when people were awake they were able to control their movements but they went on “automatic” when they were asleep.
“This patient had a real neurological problem that he was unable to control in his sleep,” Dr Cunnington said.
“To know this made a huge difference to him. He didn’t feel he was a ‘nutter’ but someone with a real problem that could be treated.”
Dr Cunnington is intrigued by such aberrations and thinks it is an important field of research.
“There is not a lot of research in this area and a lot of people are really distressed if they can’t sleep,” he said.
“Good sleepers don’t appreciate how it feels to have a sleep problem.”
Sleep problems could consume a person, becoming all they thought about during the day, and affecting how they lived their life.
There are only about 100 behavioural sleep medicine specialists in the world, few outside North America.
Western Hospital began its unit in 1993 and has helped more than 3000 patients. The service is free.
