Preview: Aric Prather, PhD, on Sleep and Your Patients' Well-Being

In this video, Aric Prather, PhD, provides an overview of the topics he is presenting at our Practical Updates in Primary Care 2021 Virtual Series on May 13, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, and the importance of sleep for health and wellbeing. 

Aric Prather, PhD, is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at the University of California, San Francisco. 

For more content, visit the Practical Updates in Primary Care newsroom.

For more information about PUPC 2021 Virtual Series and to register for upcoming sessions, visit https://practicalupdates.consultant360.com/.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Dr Aric Prather: My name is Aric Prather. I'm an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. What I'm going to be talking about is the importance of sleep for our health and well‑being.

We know that when people don't get the sleep that they need, they're at increased risk for a whole host of negative health outcomes, both physical and mental.

People are at increased risk for psychiatric conditions, cardiometabolic disorders. In some cases, large‑scale data suggests that people who don't get the sleep they need are more likely to die sooner.

Now, there are two key sleep disorders that I'll be talking about in this presentation, that help us understand these relationships and have critical importance for moving the needle around sleep health.

These are insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. Both are incredibly common in the population but often underdiagnosed and typically present in the primary care setting first.

In this discussion, I'll be talking about how common this occurs, what to look out for, and what are the key treatment avenues for helping these individuals get their sleep back and improve their overall health.