While most people spend their time focused on their waking hours, workers at the Oregon Sleep Center spend their days – and nights – studying, diagnosing and talking about what people do the rest of the time.

“Sleep – A lot of people are doing it these days,” said Jim Winde, medical director for the Oregon Sleep Center. “All mammals sleep 1/3 of their lives, so it seems fairly common, but it’s not a well understood area. We don’t know why we sleep.”

After 16 years as a family doctor in La Grande, Winde left family medicine for a fellowship to study sleep.

Winde has studied sleep in the Gifford Medical Building, first as Pinnacle Sleep and now at the Oregon Sleep Center, for two years.

“When I left my practice in La Grande, I did a 20-question survey, and three of the questions were about sleep. Only 1 in 20 people said they sleep well every night,” he said. “Everyone has an opinion, and their perception of sleep is colored by how they sleep.”

The Oregon Sleep Center sees several dozen patients a week, and “sleep techs” – polysomnographic technicians – handle a variety of tests from full overnight sleep studies to nap tests, latency tests for narcolepsy and maintenance of wakefulness tests for long-distance drivers and pilots. Sleep Tech Misty Roe said it takes about 45 minutes to prepare a patient for a test before she monitors them over night.

“We look at a lot of squiggly lines – heart rate, breathing, brain patterns – then compile all that information and send it to the doctor,” she said. “I love it. The hours are crazy, but ti’s very rewarding. Patients come in here and they are so exhausted because they can’t sleep. When we see them again (after treatment), they’re happier and they have so much more energy. It’s all about helping people.”

For the Oregon Sleep Center, Winde said the two most common problems he sees are obstructive sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome.

“A standard sleep study is just looking at the architecture of sleep,” Winde said. “We sleep in 90-minute cycles, four to six cycles per night, and in every successive cycle you get a little more REM sleep, which is the closest to wakefulness. If you have a sleep-related disorder like obstructive sleep apnea, this is being interrupted.”

Obstructive sleep apnea means the airway collapses or is blocked during sleep, which can cause shallow breathing or breathing pauses. Untreated, sleep apnea can lead to increased risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks and irregular heartbeats.

“What I’m doing is treating and preventing cardiovascular disease, right-side heart failure, and 1 in 4 men, 1 in 9 women have sleep apnea,” Winde said.

Signs of sleep apnea include chronic snoring, which may include pauses or gasping after the pauses, fighting sleepiness during the day, morning headaches and a having a dry throat on waking.

Winde recommends everyone learn the symptoms of sleep apnea and talk to their physician about sleep at all appointment.

“Every time someone sees a physician, they should talk to them about how they sleep,” he said. “Humans need sleep, and how you sleep can make a difference.”