Insomnia is a growing public health concern among Oklahoma teens, with many getting far less than the recommended sleep, leading to serious health risks. Dr. Michael Newnam of the Oklahoma Heart Institute highlights that factors like stress, sleep apnea and lifestyle habits such as caffeine and alcohol use are major contributors to this widespread issue. This article was published in the Tahlequah Daily Press on May 21, 2025.
Insomnia is a common problem, and several causes and disruptions to sleep can create health problems.
A study conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Health, published in 2020, reported the number of hours of sleep achieved on an average school night among public high school students in Oklahoma. The report is titled, “Short Sleep Duration and Associated Risk Factors Among Adolescents in Oklahoma.”
Those getting seven hours of sleep made up 29.1% of students in the study; 25% received six hours of sleep; 16.2% received eight hours; five hours was reported by 15.6%; those getting four hours or less totaled 9.2%; 3.5% managed to get nine hours; and 1.4% slept for 10 hours or more.
“Getting the recommended hours of sleep each night is a public health concern for everyone, regardless of age,” states the study. “A number of studies have shown that for adolescents, inadequate sleep is common and can negatively impact academic performance and lead to other behavioral and health consequences, such as increased injuries, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and depression, especially for teens who may experience increased risk of self-harm or suicidal thoughts.”
Dr. Michael Newnam, medical director at Oklahoma Heart Institute – Sleep Medicine, said insomnia is the most commonly reported sleep disorder.
“Patients have trouble going to or staying asleep, and that happens for a variety of reasons,” Newnam said. “Stressors like anxiety and depression, to other types of issues like sleep apnea where people have trouble breathing, or restless legs and they can’t get comfortable.”
Self-induced issues also increase this problem, like caffeine in drinks – being over-caffeinated and stimulated, plus electronic stimuli. Getting to sleep and staying asleep are the two issues related to insomnia, Newnam said.
Alcohol is a major player in sleep issues. People may believe it helps them sleep, as it sedates the individual, but it actually fragments their sleep, Newnam said.
“As the alcohol wears off, people tend to wake up because of drinking liquid and needing to pee, and a lot of people feel worse or have decreased quality,” Newnam said. “It makes apnea worse.”
Sleep apnea stops a person’s breathing and oxygen levels go down, causing negative effects to the heart, Newnam said.
“We believe there is a link between obstructive sleep apnea and sudden cardiac death,” Newnam said. “Folks who go to sleep fine and never wake up in the night – because if you are not breathing well and your oxygen goes down, it causes your body to produce too much adrenaline.”
This speeds up the heart and raises blood pressure, which stresses out the heart because it’s not receiving enough oxygen. This can create irregular rhythms, and in some cases, fatal irregularities, Newnam said.
“Adrenaline is the same chemical produced if, for example, you heard a gunshot,” Newnam said. “Your heart rate would shoot through the roof and your blood pressure would jump up. That’s that fight-or-flight chemical in the brain.”
For single people who do not know if they are experiencing an apnea problem while sleeping, there are signs a person can recognize and seek help from a physician. Generally, people who have apnea do not know they have it; it’s like asking someone if they snore, they are almost never aware of their own snoring, Newnam said.
“Some telltale signs include tiredness; they think they sleep fine but will tell you they are tired because of not getting good quality sleep,” Newnam said. “They wake up multiple times a night, causing fragmented sleep.”
A lot of times the person will say, “I had to get up to pee,” and they relate waking up to having to urinate, but it is often times sleep apnea that wakes them up. They feel the urge to urinate because they are now awake, Newnam said.
“A person who wakes up multiple times to urinate, or for any reason wakes up multiple times per night, and who is tired during the day, should be screened for sleep apnea,” Newnam said.
Certain medical conditions need to be screened, too. About half of people screened for diabetes suffers from apnea. Some patients with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, and folks with obesity issues are at a higher risk to suffer from apnea, Newnam said.
The problem is worse when people are sleeping on their backs, but it can manifest in any sleeping position, Newnam said.
“There is a stigma to the condition, and a lack of recognition,” Newnam said. “If you couldn’t breathe right now, you would get panicky and would go to the emergency room, but in the middle of the night you have no awareness of it, so it’s hard for you to believe.”
He said he has patients come in and say they sleep fine, and they do, but they are not breathing. That’s affecting their health and they have zero awareness of it because they are not waking up gasping in the night, Newnam said.
“Usually they learn about it on a family trip, or a spouse tells them, or if they are in a hospital, that’s how they learn about their sleep apnea,” Newnam said.
Restless legs is another common problem interfering with sleep, and the individual has to get up and walk and stretch. Periodic limb movement disorder, where a person jerks and moves in their sleep, disrupts a person’s sleep.
“They will have no knowledge as to why they wake up or why they are tired,” Newnam said. “They will find they are wearing thin spots in their sheets where their feet are, or spouses will notice, or covers are all over the place. A lot of those folks will also have restless legs in the night.”
Adults who take Ambien or other sleep aids often will get up and do things in the night, like make a sandwich, which they don’t remember, Newnam said.
“This will create an insomniac situation,” Newnam said.
© 2025 the Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, Okla.). Visit www.tahlequahdailypress.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Author: Lee Guthrie, Tahlequah Daily Press, Okla.
Copyright: Copyright 2025 The Tahlequah Daily Press (Tahlequah, Okla.)