Northwestern Medicine specialists research new ways to sleep through the night

CHICAGO (WLS) -- For many people, a better night's sleep is often elusive. Leading sleep specialists at the Sleep Disorders Center in Chicago explained what's new to help you snooze.

Renown sleep expert and Director of Northwestern Medicine's Sleep Disorders Center, Dr. Phyllis Zee, said brand new information shows sleep has a benefit we didn't know about before: good sleep literally cleans the brain.

"One of the functions of sleep is actually to take the garbage out of your brain. The cost of thinking is to use energy and when you use energy, you produce toxins. During sleep, your neurons, your tissue, opens up a bit so that it allows the flushing out of these toxins out of the brain," Dr. Zee said.

To find out how well person is sleeping, medical experts said people should take part in a sleep study in a clinic. Researchers attach electrodes to the body and measure brain-waves, heartbeat, breathing and more, all while the subject is trying to sleep.

ABC7 Eyewitness News' Hosea Sanders underwent a sleep study a few years ago. The results were worse than he expected.

"Your sleep was very bad," Dr. Zee said, after looking at his results.

Sanders was prescribed a CPAP machine, which forces a continuous stream of air and keeps a person breathing through the night. The newest models are smaller and much easier to use.

Researchers are also experimenting with using sound to help you sleep better. Not those bed-side sound machines, but something that virtually connects the brain to a computer.

"When you're asleep, it starts giving these soft little sounds through headphones that you wear and that increases your sleep depth and even leads to better blood pressure," said Dr. Roneil Malkani, a neurologist at Northwestern Medicine.

Researchers are also studying a new kind of pill that would help people breathe better and sleep deeper.

"The way this works is that it acts on certain chemicals in the brain that control your airways. We think it will help hold your airways open - kind of like a CPAP, but from the inside," Dr. Malkani said.

Leading the research on the so-called "sleep apnea pill" are experts from Northwestern Medicine and UIC, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health.

They are trying to figure out how to keep the pill from making people drowsy for the entire day. The scientists ABC7 spoke with seem to think they can work that out in the very near future.

Another sleep apnea treatment is a dental device that can be worn like a mouth guard or retainer. It keeps airways open, allowing the user to breather throughout the night.