Question:
Sleep/Wake Disorder's meeting on Insomnia with Dr. Clinton Marquardt ?
Answer:
The Sleep/Wake Disorders Ottawa-Hull meeting held, Tuesday November
23rd hosted Dr. Clinton Marquardt who holds a Master of Arts Degree in
Psychology (M.A. Psych.) and is a registered Polysomnographic
Technologists. Dr. Marquardt went over the stages of sleep (one,two,
three, four and Rem). He went over the cycles of sleep and what a
normal individual's sleep cycles would look like.
Dr. Marquardt then spoke about Sleep Hygiene.
These are the main tips he gave:
1) Curtail your time in bed. (the only things you should do in bed are
sleep and conduct sexual activity, note: and only sexual activity that
you enjoy as you bed should hold a positive image for you)
2) Never try to sleep (only go to bed when you are tired and dont stay
in bed trying to sleep if you can't. Get up read a book ect., until
you feel tired again)
3) Eliminated the bedroom clock. (if you need a clock to wake you up,
hide it so that you can't read the time, as the time only stresses you
out more.
4) Excersise in the after noon or early evening. Three hours before
going to bed is the optimum, but you shouldn't excersise any closer
to your bedtime. Excersise elevates the body's temperature and then
when it cools again it is most ready to go to sleep. Alternatively
take a hot bath an hour before bed time)
5) Regularize your bedtime and wake-up time. Waking up at the same
time every morning (even on weekends is extremely important). Dr.
Marquardt also said that you should set a desired bed time and never
go to bed before that time ( you can go to bed after the designated
time though.
6) Avoid caffeine, alchol and nicotine. In particular while nicotine
may seem to be relaxing, in fact it is increasing the brains
activity, making harder to sleep.
7) Eat a light snack before bed. Dr. Marquardt suggested cheese, milk
or other dairy products.
8) Stop napping during the day.
Through his talk, Dr. Marquardt stressed the fact that if a person
believes there is something wrong with his/her sleep than there is!!
The majority of people go for years with sleep problems and never go
to see their doctor. It is important to note, Dr. Marquardt
explained, that the sleeping medication prescribed for an individual
by a physician is much better than those which can be purchased over
the counter. Over the counter drugs, in fact, do not improve the
quality of sleep, have many bad side effects and are very dangerous
especially for elderly, and pregnant individuals. So bottom line,
dont buy over the counter sleep medication!!! Go see your doctor!!!!!!
A second very important point made by Dr. Marquardt was that 99% of
insomnia can be cured without the use of medication (sleeping pills).
Dr. Marquardt specializes in setting up four week programs for
individuals with sleeping problems and gives them solutions which,
unlike sleeping pills that solve the problem only temperaryily, will
arm an individual with tools and actions to take if they experience
insomnia again in the future.
Before you get too grateful for this "report", you should perhaps point
your browser at the URL given. The "report" may not be as impartial as
it first appears.
Dr Clinton Marquardt is a qualified surgeon (his qualifications seem to
have been gained in Iran, later in Canada) who offers surgical treatment
for snoring and sleep apnea. The "The Centre for Sleep and Dream
Studies" appears to be no more than a name for Dr Marquardt's medical
practice, which offers some interesting surgical techniques.
One, called "Coblation™" is a radiofrequency wave technique for removing
soft tissue instantly, rather than waiting weeks as with Somnoplasty™,
which Dr Marquardt also offers. This technique has only been in use
since July 1999. As far as I know, no research results specifically
concerning to "Coblation™" have yet been published, and it must
therefore be considered an experimental procedure.
Dr Marquardt also offers laser surgery and the term UPPP appears in
several places on this web site. Given the known poor results of these
surgical procedures for treating sleep apnea, I would counsel caution,
although I accept that LAUP and UPPP have a high success rate in the
treatment of *snoring* in the absence of sleep apnea.
