Wiring the way to better sleep

Chris Freitag wired Jim Sevely's head and chest for all sorts of electro-biological stuff: Electrical currents sparking in the brain, breathing, heart rate, snoring.

Perhaps 20 tiny wires led from Sevely to a handheld junction box that the patient carried - which then linked to a computer screen in the next room that displayed roughly a dozen zigzagging lines that would chart how Sevely would sleep that night.

This was a small bedroom at The Sleep Medicine Center's main clinic in Kalispell.

Before going to bed, Sevely would put on a nose-mask set-up that forces air through his throat.

At the right pressure, the mask will keep a steady flow that should prevent Sevely, 37, from snoring - and keeping his wife Penny awake.

The Somers computer graphics designer has been wearing it for several weeks.

This night's session was to help fine-tune the pressure settings.

"You kinda feel like you're wearing a Halloween costume," Sevely said.

Freitag said: "I wish I had a dollar for everyone who said: 'How do I sleep with all this stuff on?'"

Somehow, almost every patient ends up ignoring the wires and goes to sleep.

This night, Freitag and fellow polysomnographic technologist Sonya Furlow watched over four sleeping patients - using the electronic leads, video cameras and microphones.

"Last time, they told me they had to turn down the microphone [speaker] in their room because of my snoring," Sevely said.

The clinic also operates a two-bed sleep lab at North Valley Hospital for that institution.

And it is the only sleep medicine clinic in the Flathead to be accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The academy's inspectors came in April - finding no deficiencies, not even minor ones to tweak. The clinic - which is part of the Glacier Neuroscience & Spine Center, which has three other doctors and several staff members - received word of its accreditation a few weeks later.

"We're not doing anything that we weren't doing before," said Dr. Patrick Burns, a board-certified neurologist who became fascinated with sleep disorders and became board-certified in sleep medicine.

Sleep medicine showed up in the Flathead in the early 1990s when Burns moved to the valley to set up a practice.

Not many people were aware of sleep disorders at that time.

Originally housed at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, the sleep center expanded beyond the hospital, eventually becoming a full-service clinic in 2005.

Over the years, The Sleep Medicine Center's practice grew significantly - enough for North Valley Hospital to contract with it in 2004 to run a Whitefish clinic.

"There's a lot more people here with sleep apnea and sleep disorders than I thought," Burns said.

The center sees several hundred patients annually.

Sleep apnea involves repeated breathing stoppages during sleep. Other sleep disorders include narcolepsy, insomnia and restless legs syndrome.

Sleep problems can lead to drowsiness, lack of concentration, memory troubles, moodiness, strokes, heart disease and other ailments.

Many of these problems stem from the brain.

"We sleep for one main purpose. That's our brains. If we don't sleep right, that affects our brains," Burns said.

While awake, the brain is bio-electrically stimulated by information that the mind believes is important, and is much less stimulated by information considered unimportant.

During sleep, the brain shuffles and organizes the greatly stimulated and lesser-stimulated parts to sort out what is important and should be kept as memory.

Burns said: "Every single language has a phrase that says, 'I'll sleep on it.'"

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com