“Sometimes, I only get like an hour’s worth of sleep before I come here,” said KPRC 2 editor Eddie Shannon.
Shannon is an Army veteran and now works an overnight shift inside our newsroom.
While it’s well-known that shiftwork can disrupt healthy sleep, Dr. Supriya Singh from the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said what’s less understood among veterans is how much their get-up-and-go training may have long-lasting effects on their sleep health.
“They are expected to be staying up for long hours and still be ready to go to deal with the dangers of combat. It’s just a secondary nature to them. And as soon as they get out of the service, that habit continues of being up for long periods of time,” Dr. Singh explained. “I would say 90% of the people have this problem soon after getting out from combat.”
Dr. Singh also said about 30% of veterans are diagnosed with PTSD and almost all of them will have sleep problems. So, she said service members should have a low threshold to reach out to the sleep center.
Singh said the VA can issue you a device for a sleep study at home so many people don’t have to sleep onsite.
Plus, she said there are plenty of therapies available now that don’t require medications.
“Back in the day, medicines were the first line of therapy. But since then, over the years of research, we have figured out that something that we call CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy is what we do with these veterans. So, we go over eight weeks of sessions where we educate them what to do. So sleep hygiene, when to get into bed, when to get out of bed, not to keep on lying in bed if you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, where things like watching TV or phone or things like that should be avoided when you’re about to get into bed, not have any kind of caffeine, be it Coca Cola or just coffee after 4:00 in the evening, or other simple things like not exercising two hours prior to bed time are some of the common things that we educate them,” Singh explained.
Patients diagnosed with sleep apnea will need a medical device to reverse the condition. That can include a CPAP machine, or newer surgeries and implants can offer a more permanent solution.
“The bottom line is that there’s a whole lot that we can offer in our sleep center and we’ve had great outcomes and our patients have been very happy and their spouses have been very happy because not only is the patient, but they’re sleeping better,” Dr. Singh said.
After hearing of this information, Shannon told KPRC 2′s Health Reporter Haley Hernandez that he was willing to be seen for this. “Yeah, I definitely want to get checked out,” Shannon added.
Sleep medicine services are available at these locations:
- Michael E. DeBakey Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
- Beaumont VA Clinic
- Charles Wilson Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic
- Conroe VA Clinic
- Galveston County VA Clinic
- Katy VA Clinic
- Lake Jackson VA Clinic
- Richmond VA Clinic
- Texas City VA Clinic
- Tomball VA Clinic
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Phone: 713-794-8730.
It’s critical to improve your fatigue because it can lead to or further complicate conditions like atrial fibrillation and high blood pressure.
The signs you may have a sleep condition include:
- Snoring
- Waking up with a headache
- Feeling tired the next day
- Feeling grumpy
- Falling asleep while driving
