by Carey Chesney

Sleep is something most of us take for granted. We turn out the lights each night and not long after we drift away to unconsciousness. We dream a bit, our body refuels and we wake up in the morning armed with new energy to seize the day, or at least get through it.

Flint resident Amer Iqbal was eager to participate in a research study to help gain insight into his sleep problems.

But for Amer Iqbal, 31, of Flint, sleep is never as easy as just turning out the lights.

“I have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep and getting back to sleep when I wake up in the middle of the night,” says Iqbal.

Iqbal’s struggles with sleep have had an impact on his physical and mental health. He can’t work out and play basketball as much as he used to (two of his favorite activities) and he often struggles to get through the most basic tasks of the day.

“Sometimes when I’m driving to work, I find myself dozing off at the wheel,” he says. “I drive all the way from Flint to downtown Detroit to work every day and that’s quite a long trip when you’ve only had a couple of hours of sleep after tossing and turning all night. When I started falling asleep at the wheel, I knew I had to do something, not just for me, but also for my wife and kids.”

So Iqbal went online and searched for sleep studies he could participate in. He wanted to gain some insight into his own problems while at the same time helping support research in the field

“I came across a study being conducted at the Sleep Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital and was immediately interested,” He says. “They were looking for volunteers, so I signed up.”

Here a sleep technician charts Iqbal’s sleep rhythms to help determine what causes the signs and symptoms experienced by those with insomnia.

“Increased secretions of CRH create a state of physiological hyper-arousal, including increased metabolic activity, increased levels of stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine, as well as sleep disruption.  This is a profile that is very similar to what we see in patients with insomnia,” says the Henry Ford researcher.

In the study, participants are given a drug called dexamethasone, a steroid that results in transient increases in brain CRH levels, producing changes in brain EEG activity that can be measured in the laboratory. An exaggerated response to dexamethasone in patients with insomnia, compared to normal sleepers, would support the theory that CRH is elevated in this condition.

“If we can show that CRH is indeed involved in producing the signs and symptoms of insomnia, then we would have an important new focus for future efforts toward treatment, or even prevention,” says Dr. Richardson.

All the studies conducted at Henry Ford Hospital’s Sleep Research Center share that same goal: to analyze the causes of sleep disorders with the hope of eventually finding a cure and a way to prevent them.

Research like this is important for people who suffer from sleep disorders because most of the treatment options available right now offer a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

Henry Ford research scientist Christopher Drake, Ph.D., seeks a cure for insomnia.

“Many of the treatments for insomnia that are available today are effective, but may not be addressing the underlying pathology of the disorder,” says Christopher Drake, Ph.D., a Henry Ford senior research scientist who has led a number of studies geared toward determining possible causes of insomnia. “Unfortunately, that leaves the potential for more side effects and is not likely to correct the problem without continued treatment.”

The limitations of these treatments, as well as the adverse side effects that can accompany them, serve as proof that sound research in the field of sleep disorders is the only hope for finding a long-term cure, exactly the type of research going on at Henry Ford Hospital’s Sleep Research Center.

Dr. Drake and others at the center recently finished a study designed to determine if there are characteristics in people that make them predisposed to insomnia.

They wanted to know whether it is possible to identify “at-risk” insomniacs before the disorder takes over their lives. This will help identify the physiological and psychological aspects underlying the disorder rather than those that are a consequence of the sleep disturbance itself.

“This study has reinforced the widely-held theory that some individuals have inherent traits that make them more vulnerable to insomnia. If we can identify who is at risk, we can search for specific genetic differences in these people that may eventually lead to determining the causes of insomnia and, hopefully, a cure,” he says.

“We hope we will eventually be able to treat insomnia early enough that we can prevent it from becoming a chronic problem. For the 10 to 15 percent of the population that suffers from chronic insomnia, early prevention could dramatically improve the quality of their lives.”