Why do you wake up at night? | Barry Krakow | TEDxABQ

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Published 2017-12-20
Why do you wake up at night? What causes these awakenings that prevent sleeping through the night? How do these middle of the night interruptions lead to insomnia, the prolonged episodes where you desperately desire sleep yet cannot catch one wink let alone forty? Most insomniacs imagine stress, an overactive mind, or a genetic background causes this vexing sleep loss. Remarkably, these questions had never been researched until Dr. Barry Krakow and his colleagues conducted a study on 20 classic insomniacs, all of whom believed their problems were due to stress, racing thoughts or a genetic predisposition. In a landmark study, published in the journal SLEEP, they demonstrated 90% of awakenings experienced by these insomniacs were preceded by a disruption in their breathing while asleep. In effect, they found a major, and likely primary, cause for why people wake up at night and have continued to research and demonstrate this physiological breathing problem in thousands of insomnia patients. A lifelong insomniac, Barry Krakow was fortunate to gain seven years of blessed relief—four years in medical school and three at UNM School of Medicine, completing an internal medicine residency. Soon after, divine providence guided him to a sleep medicine career as a clinical specialist and sleep researcher, studying and treating chronic nightmare and insomnia patients at Maimonides Sleep Arts & Sciences, sleep medical center, and Sleep & Human Health Institute, sleep research facility. In the 1990s, Dr. Krakow learned first-hand how unwanted bouts of sleeplessness (insomnia) were not caused solely by the standard explanations found in nearly all medical and psychological textbooks. Insomnia was far more complex and ultimately proved to be intricately linked to sleep breathing problems. Since then, his quarter of a century quest to map out connections between insomnia and sleep-disordered breathing yielded results beyond anything he would have dreamed possible. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx
All Comments (21)
  • @danjopaluska6082
    6:30 why you wake up? 6:55 hundreds of mini awakenings 7:05 90% of awakenings caused by breathing obstructions 10:45 sleep apnea makes you pee more. 11:00 3 levels. nasal breathing. nasal strips, oral appliance, CPAP 13:00 summarizedazations.
  • @kimlafever6268
    I've seen so many good Ted talks over the years and watching this today feels like defining moment in my life! This was me!! Dr. Krakow and his team seem to have cracked the code that has kept me awake for many years. Thank you for validating my experience 100%! The issues with insomnia started in my 40s. It was also a time when work was really busy, life was hectic and stressful. Being a woman in her 40s at the time, the medical establishment implied that this was just a pattern of life and some people get stuck with it! It was very easy to get prescriptions for insomnia pills and for them to recommend I try other "lifestyle" approaches but none of it really fixed anything. Fast forward a few years and people start to complain about my snoring. After years, I eventually had a sleep assessment. Many people don't think that small framed or recommended weight people get apnea but we are 70+% of people with apnea. After a diagnosis of mild apnea, the specialist said a dental device could probably work well for me. My insurance company patently refused to allow one unless I failed 90 days of CPAP. The dental device without insurance was well over $2k; it was not something one would readily pay for out of pocket. The problem with a CPAP trial is my claustrophobia with things on or around my face. I tried multiple ways of expressing this to my insurance co. Their response was no, you would need to fail at CPAP which just sounded horrific to attempt. I already couldn't sleep at night so the suggestion to add the trauma of claustrophobic to the mix was a non-starter. Little by little, through my own research and persistence, I've adopted many of the practices Dr. Krakow talks about in his talk! I have a pretty decent dental retainer but not an actual apnea device. This science makes me want to push again on getting access to a sleep dentist. It helped to realize there actually is a physical component to all this and a greater root cause beyond it's just "life and anxiety." Thank you Dr. Krakow!
  • @asunciondiezarce1828
    Thank you so much for shearing y your knowledge to everyone. I think that you just have resolved my several awakenings and the trips to the bathroom, every night. Bless you
  • @gazels11
    But this doesn't answer why people have sleep apnea. It's often due to internal inflammation. I had bad sleep apnea. When I drastically reduced my carb intake over several months by sleep apnea disappeared as I no longer had chronic internal inflammation that causes my airways to collapse at night. Lost a bunch of weight too. Best thing I ever did. No drugs, no apparatus.
  • @postfallsfamilydental
    This needs to posted EVERYWHERE!!! The physcians have GOT to start recognizing this. We as dental professionals are screening and helping as many as we can! WE just need more awareness!
  • @paulmckinley6294
    Anyone claiming this is an infomercial did not have the patience to watch the whole talk. It's about sleep apnea and it's contribution to chronic insomnia.
  • @crazycat2869
    Thank you for some great advice & the insight into a frustrating problem
  • @josephlai9759
    Wow! This is revealing. Thank you so much for clarifying the cause for insomnia. I never understood it until now. Discovering abnormal breathing as a main cause for insomnia is truly 'breath-taking'!
  • @lauraelenamendoza1
    I just had an apneic episode the same night after watching the video and woke up with a racing heart. Thank you!
  • @momsoloman7489
    This is amazing! I have had a BIPAP machine for about a year. I had a hard time getting used to using it. A friend suggested I try the "nasal pillow" rather than the full face mask. I went from having 8-11 "events" a night to .8 to 2 events per night! I don't know how they decided not to give me CPAP, but I am so glad they did it. These machines are so expensive, that the wrong machine would have been a huge problem.
  • @hibernator4602
    I searched why I wakes up at night and going to the bathroom more than 2 times in between my sleep and it's 1:49 and found this. Thanks a lot it helps
  • @nancyv4431
    I had suffered with insomnia for 5-7 years after menopause. I’d tried & tested everything and then, I found this video. I’d never really snored so I couldn’t believe I needed a CPAP. However, I was desperate and willing to try it. After 2 weeks of getting used to it, I am now getting the best, restful sleep in over a decade. Thanks for sharing your data and experiences.
  • @jeffreydiegelman9263
    I had insomnia from 30-44. I would sleep the first 2.5-3.5 hrs then wake. Staying awake then 1.5-3.5 hrs most often and go back to sleep until I had to wake for work...My fix came very inadvertently. I should mention I tried tons of things to cure this middle of the night awakening yet rare was the night I would sleep straight through. Possible 1or 2 times a year and even less some years. My fix came after a car accident that put me at a special place that was outside normal hospitals and such. Here , the NP was quite young and eager to help my concussion. To " calm" the brain down from the trauma of the car accident she prescribed me amytriptaline. I went home to research it and found it was used on death row for those psychotic types. I refused taking it bc of this but after discussions with the NP at the next appointment she reassured me at that medical facility they used it for post concussion people. I believed her. I started then cutting the 5 MG. pill in half and taking about 2.5 MG. That kept me sleeping straight through the night. They did need to increase the dosage from time to time but that's all I needed. .I felt like I lived in a fog those 14 years. Literally like I was sleeping bc when I could go straight through all night?, I felt like a completely different person.
  • @DianneElizabeth64
    My friend had insomnia for 20 years. She began a chiropractic regimen and sleeps soundly. We can’t gab late anymore because she sleeps now. Sp many reasons for insomnia
  • @victorching6278
    My sleep deprivation lasted for about 5 months. I thought I was going to go crazy or die. It started with my plantar bothering me. I took anti-inflammatory drugs which woke me up due to the dry mouth is produced. I took more drugs to counteract the symptoms and it led me in a downward spiral of tapering, switching drugs, withdrawal symptoms, etc. It wasn't until I became drug-free that my sleep came back to normal levels.
  • @mac2658
    I started doing this three years ago, started dreaming for the first time in 25 years, it immediately and completely changed my quality of life. Bought the rubber gadget for $4.00 on Amazon. I use it with nasal strips. The worse part is that I had the gadget laying in my night table for seven years before using it. I blame it on sleep deprivation lol