[Blindtlk] chalking everything up to blindness

Tue May 25 17:43:21 UTC 2010

Gary,

To some degree, I know I have been guilty of having a knee-jerk reaction to some of what I have read regarding research into blindness-related sleep studies.  Your 
points are very good, that the causes of some types of blindness could also cause sleep disorders and therefore be related to blindness.  However, what I have also 
noted is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of attention to what else might be going on in the lives of the people being studied.  For example, if one is going to truly 
understand the sleep disorders that might be related to blindness, one must also find a control group with similar life styles, such as 70% unemployment and all that is 
related to that.  Also, I find that when people get to the advanced age that you and I are approaching, even though I consider myself young, many sighted people in 
my age group have sleep problems.  When I see the excitement that some doctors have when presented to study a blind person's sleep disorder, it isn't entirely 
rational.  This is certainly not always the case, I know that, but in one case a doctor started talking about writing an article for a medical journal before even 
checking out the blind person's sleep disorder.  Blind people need to be aware of this when dealing with a sleep study to be sure that all the normal indicators are 
checked.  I think that encountering someone who launches in right away on blindness-related sleep disorders should set off some alarms.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Tue, 25 May 2010 10:43:12 -0500, Gary Wunder wrote:

>Just as researchers have a knee-jerk reaction to attribute things to 
>blindness, so do we sometimes have that same reaction to say that blindness 
>has nothing to do with this or that condition. This is an understandable 
>reaction given how many times we've seen products developed which we don't 
>need and into which we had no say. Still, I think we have to be open to the 
>idea that blindness is not a condition which stands on its own and may well 
>interact with other bodily functions. Especially is this true when you 
>consider that there are many ways to go blind.

>I think Pete is right when he says that we dare not ignore other known 
>conditions which lead to sleep problems such as sleep apnea. I had a sleep 
>study done about 10 years ago and when considering courses of treatment the 
>technician doing the study pulled me aside and said quote for most of the 
>people we see, you included, many of your symptoms would go away if you just 
>lost 40 pounds." That made me a bit uncomfortable, but I have found what she 
>said to be true. I still struggle, like everyone else, to keep my weight 
>under control, but I certainly do see a relationship in my case between 
>weight and the ability to sleep well at night. Sleep Apnea is not always 
>found in those who are overweight - my mother-in-law weighs 110 pounds and 
>has it - but in some cases we can do something positive to help reduce its 
>symptoms.

>Gary

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Robert J Smith" <rsmith247 at csc.com>
>To: <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 9:31 AM
>Subject: [Blindtlk] chalking everything up to blindness

>> Hi all.  I definitely agree that there is a tendency for health
>> professionals to chalk problems up to blindness, but I believe in the case
>> of sleep irregularities, there is solid evidence that shows that the brain
>> actually needs to see light to keep its day and night cycles regulated. As
>> I understand it, when the brain sees light, the production of melatonin
>> which causes a person to sleep is held in check.  When a person is in the
>> dark, then melatonin is produced, causing sleep.  If a person does not see
>> light at all, to the brain, the person is then in a perpetual night
>> surrounding so melatonin could be produced at inappropriate times causing
>> drowsiness during those times.  Possibly the taking of Melatonin
>> externally, regulates this a little more.
>>
>> Bob Smith
>>
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