News Archive

Professor Peter Eastwood from the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia spoke to a full house of enthusiastic community members at the UWA Albany public lecture on November 24th.

Professor Eastwood discussed the causes of sleep apnoea and its current treatments. He also talked about the causes of sleep apnoea, and in particular the importance of the structure of the face, head and neck.

Sleep disorders are common in our community. In 2010 the percentage of the population with the most well recognised and researched sleep disorders was 4.7% for sleep apnoea, 3% for insomnia, and 1.2% for restless legs syndrome - this equates to 1.5 million Australians or 8.9% of the population.

Sleep disorders are estimated to cost the Australian health system $5.1 billion annually. More than half of this cost is associated with sleep apnoea, which is associated with snoring and repeated periods of ‘choking’ during sleep. Sleep apnoea causes daytime sleepiness and is strongly linked to sleepiness related accidents, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and depression. Despite sleep apnoea being treatable, the vast majority of individuals remain undiagnosed. This is mainly because current methods of assessing sleep apnea are expensive and access to them is limited.

Professor Eastwood heads the Centre for Sleep Science at the University of Western Australia. His research groups at the University of Western Australia and at the West Australian Sleep Disorders Research Institute, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, have had a long standing interest in understanding the mechanisms for obstructive sleep apnoea. His research has led to the application of general anaesthesia to examine upper airway function and the use of nerve stimulation to treat sleep apnoea.

The UWA Centre has recently completed overnight sleep studies in 1,000 young adults who are all participants of the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, one of the oldest successful pregnancy cohorts in the world. Over the next two years the parents of these young adults will also participate in overnight sleep studies at the Centre. The information generated from these studies will provide unique into the prevalence, clinical features and predictors of sleep disorders in early adulthood and the genetic basis and prevalence of sleep disorders in middle-aged adults.

Professor Eastwood is also the Scientific Director of the Western Australian Pregnancy (Raine) Cohort, the Deputy Director of the Institute for Respiratory Health and Editor-in-Chief of Respirology, the major respiratory medicine journal of the Asian Pacific region. He holds joint appointments as a Professor at the University of Western Australia, a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and an Adjunct Professor at Curtin University.

Media references

Paula Phillips (UWA Albany Centre) (+61 8) 9842 0810

David Stacey (UWA Media and Public Relations Manager)      (+61 8) 6488 3229 / (+61 4) 32 637 716