By Hillary Wundrow
For StatelineBusiness

BELOIT ­ My wife was constantly poking me to stop snoring and complained that I stopped breathing."

When Mike Pellegrino uttered those words to his doctor he didn't know he'd be shipped off to Beloit Memorial Hospital's Sleep Solutions.

"I wasn't that excited, but my wife was," Pellegrino said.

Once Pellegrino was diagnosed with sleep apnea and then received the proper treatment, he was able to sleep like a baby.

Pellegrino isn't alone. Just because someone gets eight to 10 hours of sleep doesn't mean it's quality, restful sleep. Many sleepless in the Stateline Area are diagnosed with sleep apnea and periodic limb movement disorder.

"About 80 percent of people who come in have one of those two conditions," said Bonnie Timm, a registered sleep technician at Beloit Memorial Hospital's Sleep Solutions.

Those at Beloit Memorial Hospital want people to know there are successful treatments for sleep disorders.

Many people have turned to Beloit Memorial Hospital's Sleep Solutions and NorthPointe Sleep Solutions in Roscoe for help. The two labs offer beds, rooms, technicians and plenty of equipment to determine what is preventing someone from getting his or her rest.

Once someone is referred by a physician to the sleep labs, the person has a pretty easy job. Participants fill in sleep history information sent to them in the mail and then show up an hour before bedtime.

"They come into the lab and we apply monitors and electrodes. It takes about an hour to prepare," Timms said.

Once the subject is asleep, the technicians will monitor him or her for several hours. Technicians may be able to detect sleep apnea, a sleep disorder resulting in brief interruptions of breath.

Pauses in breathing can last from 10 to 30 seconds or more and can occur up to 400 times a night. More than 18 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea. It can affect anyone at any age, although most at risk are middle-aged, overweight males, according to the National Sleep Foundation's Web site.

If sleep apnea is apparent, the technician will wake the person up and then apply continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).

"It's about the size of a small shoe box and it's very quiet. It's an air pump that blows air into the nose. It both blows air and acts as a splint. Oftentimes we will run it with heated humidity," Timms said.

When Pellegrino visited Beloit Memorial Hospital Sleep Solutions, he was diagnosed with sleep apnea.

After falling asleep, a technician noticed the interruptions in Pellegrino's breathing. By the middle of the night a technician woke him up to tell him he had sleep apnea.

The technician then applied the CPAP to Pellegrino. It took him a night or two to adjust to the machine, but then he noticed improvement.

"I think I'm more rested. Because I'm dreaming more, I realize am getting more quality sleep," Pellegrino said.

The other major sleep disorder people are diagnosed with is periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS), or repetitive movements, most typically in the lower limbs, that occur about every 20 to 40 seconds.

Usually medication can be prescribed for PLMS. Once the technician at the sleep lab collects data on the severity of PLMS, it is given to a doctor to look over. Then a medication can be prescribed.

Other sleep issues can range from poor sleeping habits and stress to narcolepsy.

To test for narcolepsy, patients can be tested in the sleep lab during a series of naps. Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and features symptoms such as hallucinations and sleep paralysis.

"Studies have shown that with good follow-up and some sort of support program, that patients can be successful," said Jane Hogan, director of sleep solutions, the laboratory and pulmonary services.

Beloit Memorial Hospital offers AWAKE, a support group for people with sleep apnea.

Because of the demand for sleep disorder services, Hogan said another lab was added to the new Roscoe site - the NorthPointe Health and Wellness Campus.

NorthPointe Sleep Solutions opened in Roscoe when the general health campus opened in January. NorthPointe's Sleep Solutions is located within NorthPointe Terrace, the assisted living portion of the campus.

"We decided to put it in NorthPointe Terrace to make it a more homelike atmosphere because sleep studies are performed at night. There is also staff 24 hours a day down at NorthPointe Terrace," Hogan said.

Sleep Solutions at Beloit Memorial Hospital has one bedroom and NorthPointe offers two bedrooms, with the option of expanding.

"Here (Beloit Memorial Hospital) we see patients about six nights a week, but are booked up," Hogan said. "I think there's an increased knowledge in how powerful sleep really is. There are a lot of other disease states that sleep can make worse. If you don't get good sleep it affects your health."