For Floral Park resident John H. Voss III, severe snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness had become a normal part of life. A clerk in the Elmont Post Office for over 16 years, Mr. Voss thought that his poor sleep habits and feelings of fatigue were due largely to his uncommon work schedule of 4 a.m. – 12 p.m. And, although nodding off during breaks had become common for Mr. Voss, he would often frighten his colleagues when catching up on much needed sleep.

“They’d shake me and say, ‘Wake up John! We were watching your chest; you weren’t breathing!’” recalls Mr. Voss.

Then the 46-year-old began waking up with headaches and heart palpations, night sweats and episodes of sleep paralysis – a temporary form of paralysis that can result from sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy as well as from having an irregular sleep schedule. That’s when he knew that a medical evaluation was long overdue.

A visit with his family physician soon led him to Winthrop-University Hospital’s renowned Sleep Disorders Center (SDC), a nationally accredited, hospital-based program with more than 20 years of experience in diagnosing and treating sleep disorders.

Winthrop’s SDC is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and is staffed by a skilled team of sleep medicine specialists and sleep technologists.

“Winthrop’s Sleep Disorders Center offers comprehensive, individualized evaluations and testing for patients suffering from problems related to sleep,” said Michael Weinstein, MD, the Director of Winthrop’s Sleep Disorders Center, who is board certified in Sleep Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr. Weinstein is nationally recognized for his expertise in sleep medicine and was recently appointed by the AASM to be its representative on the Board of Directors of the national Committee on Accreditation for Polysomnographic Technologist Education. He also serves as vice-chair of the AASM’s Sleep Technologist Issues Committee and is a member of the AASM’s Obstructive Sleep Apnea Task Force.

An over-night sleep study (polysomnogram) at Winthrop’s Sleep Disorders Center quickly revealed that Mr. Voss was indeed suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) – a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts.

“During a sleep study we monitor various body processes such as brain waves, eye movements, heart rate, and breathing patterns to assess a patient’s condition and its severity,” said Dr. Weinstein.

The sleep study revealed a dangerously high apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) – a measure that represents the number of times per hour that breathing is interrupted due to obstruction of the breathing passage.

“The findings of the study showed Mr. Voss had an AHI of 160, far exceeding the threshold of 40 events per hour – typically defined as the cutoff for severe sleep apnea,” said Dr. Weinstein.

Many patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea obtain great relief from a special device called CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) – a machine that delivers air pressure through a mask that is placed over the nose during sleep. With the CPAP device, air pressure becomes greater than that of the surrounding air, opening a patient’s upper airway passages and preventing apnea and snoring.

John Voss (left, holding CPAP device) meets with Michael Weinstein, MD, Director of Winthrop’s Sleep Disorders Center.