Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad has tied up with University of South Florida, USA, for proper diagnosis of sleep disorder diseases through telemedicine. Apollo's initiative is in the context of growing number of sleep disorders affecting a large number of people in the country due to changing lifestyles.

Under the agreement, experts in sleep medicines at the University of South Florida will diagnose the patients with various types of sleep disorders through telemedicine route at the Advance Sleep Medicine Lab at Apollo Hospitals. This will include live discussion between patient and doctor to facilitate history taking, treatment plan, etc.

As the country is witnessing a sea change in lifestyle system, it brings in its wake several sleep disorders. This is more prevalent among adults and people working in call centres and also among those who work in shifts. One of the common disorders is sleep apnea (known as snoring) that causes ventricular disturbance and often leads to breathing problems and might also lead to death. Besides, sleep disorders affect the psychological, social and physical aspects of the human health.

The Advance Sleep Medicine Lab will address various aspects related to sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep walking, talking, seizures (known as parasomnias), REM behavioural disorder, sleep eating, and others, said Dr Prakash Reddy an American Board Certified Sleep Medicine Specialist with University of South Florida, USA. We will also implement telemedicine between Apollo Sleep Labs and USA sleep labs in next 30 days, he added.

In the beginning the Apollo Sleep lab will have two beds wherein patients suffering from the disorder can avail the facility during night time. Patient will be observed for limb movement during sleep, sleeping position, facial expression, pulse rate, breathing pattern, etc. Treatment will be provided based on the sleep behaviour during the observation period, CPAP (continuous positive airways pressure) system will also be used to cure the disorder.

According Dr Prakash it has been found that nearly 3-4 per cent people suffer from obstructive sleep disorder. Majority of them were among people who work during night and in shifts, which causes fatigue, day time sleepiness, lose of concentration, and change in behaviour. It is also more prevalent in post menopausal women as compared to the men of same age group, due to loss of hormones, he added. About the USA sleep lab in Florida, he said that on an average 100 sleep test and treatments are done every month at the lab which has four sleep labs.

Loss of sleep or disturbed sleep also leads to mental health and neurological problems. It is indeed very crucial as sleep disorder especially snoring can disturb cardiac functioning, which can lead to a stroke. "In our patients we have noticed that people affected with stroke also have heart related complications", said Dr Subhashini Prabhakar, senior consultant neurologist and stroke programme director of Apollo Hospital.

Heart attack, stroke, uncontrolled blood pressure, diabetes are all impacted by uncorrected sleep disorder and apnea. School going children are also affected with sleep disorder and snoring due to recurrence of various ENT diseases among children which often cause disturbance during sleep, the major being tonsils and adenoids, said Dr Prakash.