A News Story You Won’t Lose Sleep Over

Topic:  The Missing Link That Solves Insomnia:  Sleep-Disordered Breathing

Chronic insomnia is the most common sleep disorder in America. More than one-third of adults at any given time suffer bouts of sleeplessness, and no less than 20 million people suffer chronic insomnia in need of medical attention.  The vast majority of these insomniacs are not helped by medication, because medication doesn't address their real problem. It only further hides it.

Why has such little progress been made to find a cure when so many people suffer from insomnia? Contrary to the conventional wisdom, insomnia is not simply a psychological problem caused by too much stress.  Insomnia is a mind-body problem, and for decades the physical component to insomnia has been overlooked.

What is this missing and usually hidden physical link?  Sleep-Disordered Breathing!

Sleep Disordered breathing is an often difficult to detect disorder of respiration that silently disrupts the sleep of millions of insomniacs.  Now, for the first time, Dr. Barry Krakow links insomnia and sleep breathing in his new nationally released book, SOUND SLEEP, SOUND MIND: 7 Keys to Sleeping Through the Night (Wiley & Sons, October, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-471-65064-5).  In this pioneering work, Dr. Krakow shows not only how sleep breathing problems go undiagnosed and untreated among insomniacs, but he also spells out in great detail how the current rage for the sleeping pill cure is anything but a cure.

Dr. Krakow is a world renowned sleep expert, author of several books on sleep and numerous research articles on sleep, insomnia, and sleep breathing published in leading sleep, medical, respiratory, and psychiatric journals.  He is the medical director of several sleep centers in New Mexico, including Maimonides Sleep Arts & Sciences, as well as the principal investigator of the Sleep & Human Health Institute, a non-profit sleep research center.

Dr. Krakow has an array of media expertise, including radio, television, and print exposure.  A complete list of media background is included in this packet.  Several of Dr. Krakow’s television and radio appearances are accessible on our website www.sleeptreatment.com.

In upcoming appearances, Dr Krakow will address the sleep breathing connection to insomnia and how sleeping pills often steer chronic insomniacs in the wrong direction.  The quotes below reflect simulations of the types of topics Dr. Krakow would anticipate and his responses to them:

• The link between sleep disordered breathing and insomnia: “The medical community, as well as the majority of insomniacs, are headed in the wrong direction when they search for sleep treatment.   They hastily conclude that stress is the cause and pills are the answer.  Many of these troubled sleepers are literally shocked to find that their restless nights were due to sleep-disordered breathing.  This sleep condition is clearly a physical disorder, but it was invisible to them until they were tested in the sleep lab.”
• Why sleep quality is emphasized over sleep quantity: “Insomniacs are often obsessed with the number of hours slept, and all the misleading drug ads for sleeping pills reinforce this invalid perspective.  The real problem for 90% of insomniacs is they’ve got a sleep quality problem, but they don’t recognize it.  If you don’t get good quality sleep, you end up with insomnia, feel lousy in the morning and have no energy to function well during the day.  So, why is the insomniac’s sleep quality so bad?  Again, the answer in the majority of cases appears to be sleep-disordered breathing or SDB.  Unfortunately, while SDB robs these troubled sleepers of quality sleep, they continue to obsess about the number of hours they’re getting or not getting.”
• Prescription sleep aids set back effective insomnia treatment: “Sleeping pills do not resolve the underlying mental, physical, and emotional issues that contribute to insomnia.  They may help people temporarily, but in an embarrassingly high number of cases, the use of pills mask or delay the diagnosis of the breathing condition.  So, sleeping pills often make things worse for failing to correctly diagnose and treat the real cause of the problem.”
• Are pills a bad choice for sleep treatment?  “For the vast majority, sleeping pills do not provide a solution.  There is so much more ground to cover prior to prescribing sleep drugs.  These medications are often called upon as a first option, yet they should be seen as a last resort.”

For more information on Dr. Krakow and Sound Sleep, Sound Mind, visit http://www.sleeptreatment.com.

Please contact Lindsay Chandler, Marketing Director at 505.998.7201 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to discuss arranging an interview with Dr. Krakow.  Thank you for your consideration.