{"id":246,"date":"2015-10-28T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-28T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/dormancy\/?page_id=246"},"modified":"2015-10-28T18:52:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-28T18:52:29","slug":"counting-sheep-in-the-name-of-science","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/dormancy\/counting-sheep-in-the-name-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Counting Sheep in the Name of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story by Lauren J. Young<\/em>
\nAudio by Katherine Ellen Foley<\/em><\/p>\n

—<\/em><\/p>\n

Sleep behavior specialist Girardin Jean-Louis<\/a>, 47, is on high alert when others are teetering on the edge of their most vulnerable state. On his subway ride to and from his office on East 30th Street in Manhattan, he sees heads lull lazily with the jostle of the train \u2014 some with a chin propped by a palm, others with a temple against a window. Jean-Louis\u2019s ears perk up to the sound of soft hums and roaring rumbles of his fellow snoring passengers.<\/p>\n

Snores are alarms in his head. They are the warning sign for sleep apnea<\/a>, one of the most common sleep disorders where individuals stop breathing for several seconds at a time during sleep. He itches to slip his business card into their hands with a hope that they will call so he can check if the slumbering train passengers are at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you go up to someone and just say, \u2018Call me. Please, call me\u2019?\u201d Jean-Louis asked. His thick, dark-skinned fingers that had been folded on his desk were woven together tightly when he spoke, almost as if he was sending a prayer. \u201cI only wish that somehow there was a better campaign to let people know about sleep apnea. It\u2019s something our economy is working on, but I think they could do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

A growing<\/a> body<\/a> of<\/a> research<\/a> demonstrates that African Americans have a higher prevalence of sleep apnea. At New York University Medical School\u2019s Center for Healthful Behavior Change, Jean-Louis, who holds a Ph.D. in psychology and completed his post-doctorate in chronobiology, is building a better communication strategy to address the disparities in diagnosing sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. In 2008, Jean-Louis led a community-based study<\/a> that revealed only 38 percent of 421 black patients suspected to have sleep apnea agreed to have a diagnostic test. During his training, he also worked on the first wearable sleep technology that allows some sleep tests to be performed outside expensive labs and in the comfort of patients\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n

Jean-Louis and his research team at NYU are currently piloting four different studies and initiatives<\/a> aimed at understanding sleep behavior among African Americans, Latinos and other minority groups and to teach them about how sleep affects our waking lives. They have set up outreach groups at churches, barber shops, hair salons and health care facilities throughout the underserved and diverse boroughs of New York City. By gaining the support of community leaders, the researchers utilize the information channels these patients know best. It has taken several years \u2014 and many haircuts \u2014 to establish these relationships and engage members of the community, Jean-Louis said.<\/p>\n

\"tardigrades-cartoon2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Jean-Louis\u2019s work is very innovative in respect to sleep apnea in African Americans,\u201d said Kristen Knutson<\/a>, a biomedical anthropologist and professor at the University of Chicago. Knutson often<\/a> refers<\/a> to Jean-Louis\u2019s work in her own research exploring sleep deficiencies and quality among different socioeconomic groups. She says his studies emphasize that we need to understand why minority groups aren\u2019t getting appropriate treatment for sleep disorders. Jean-Louis\u2019s work \u201creally focuses in and tries to figure out what is happening there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But Jean-Louis drifted into the science of sleep, and later health disparities, unexpectedly.<\/p>\n

He thought he was going to become an engineer. As a child growing up in Haiti, Jean-Louis loved to build things and take them apart only to build them back up again. He immigrated to New York at the age of 17 to pursue engineering at City College of New York until he took an elective course in sleep lab techniques with an emphasis on dreams and circadian rhythms, the daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness.<\/p>\n

After watching the ragged peaks of brain waves form on a scrolling ream of paper during an electroencephalogram (EEG), Jean-Louis became fascinated by the way the brain operated during sleep.<\/p>\n

He worked\u00a0on a study that explored what happened when people were deprived of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Jean-Louis had the lucky job of waking up participants each time they entered this dream stage of sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cInteresting things happen when you do that,\u201d Jean-Louis said. When Jean-Louis woke people the first couple of times, they were compliant. As the night wore on, subjects grew disgruntled, and some tended \u201cto get very nasty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a sleep technician is difficult work, said Jean-Louis, but having an engaging one can make a huge difference as a patient goes through the often awkward and uncomfortable 45-minute electrode prep for the standard sleep study known as polysomnography.<\/p>\n

But even the best sleep technician in the world can\u2019t turn sleeping in a foreign testing environment covered in sticky electrodes into a comfortable sleeping condition, Jean-Louis admitted. This is why two nights are typically needed for a sleep study, which can rack up a lot of money in medical fees. In the United States, a session can cost anywhere between $1,250 and $6,700<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurance may cover the first one. What happens to the second one? That\u2019s very costly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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