Mitchell Miglis, MD: A Bidirectional Link Between Autonomic Dysfunction, Hypersomnias

"I think it all comes back to the concept of homeostasis in our bodies, to have good healthy functioning of everything we have to get good sleep, exercise is important, and the circadian 24-hour cycle that all our bodies crave, if that is disrupted, then patients' sleep will get affected and usually their autonomic system will get affected too, so it's a very tight and interesting overlap."

At the SLEEP 2019 annual meeting, held June 8­—12, in San Antonio, Texas, Mitchell Miglis, MD, presented on autonomic dysfunction in central nervous system (CNS) hypersomnias. While a very common comorbidity, it is an underrepresented portion of the sleep medicine field.

Miglis explained that a large number of patients with autonomic dysfunction also experience sleep disruption and comorbid sleep disorders, creating a bidirectional link with these 2 fields. He recommends that clinicians ask their patients questions about their autonomic functions to help recognize these dysfunctions as a comorbidity in sleep disorders.

To further explain his presentation, the assistant professor of neurology and autonomic disorders and sleep medicine specialist of Stanford University, spoke with NeurologyLive in an interview.

For more coverage of SLEEP 2019, click here.