Dazed and confused - more likely.

Everyone can relate to having a bad night - little or no sleep. However, there is a segment of the population that rarely experiences a decent night’s sleep.

As many as 15 million Americans may suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the Sleep Institute. Up to 25 percent of primary care patients have restless legs symptoms and the overall prevalence of an insomnia symptom within the last year is around 30 percent.

Scott & White is partnering with the American College of Chest Physicians and the Sleep Institute to promote an increase awareness of common sleep disorders seen in primary care medical practices.

“We want to target primary care physicians so they’ll be more alert to these common sleep disorders,” said Dr. Shirley Jones, a sleep disorder specialist at Scott & White.

About a third of the population will suffer from insomnia some time in their lifetime and a certain portion of that population will have chronic insomnia, Dr. Jones said.

Some studies indicate 8 percent of the population have sleep apnea, said Dr. Alejandro Arroliga, division director of pulmonary and critical care and sleep disorders at Scott & White.

There are three types of apnea: obstructive, central and mixed; of the three, obstructive is the most common. Despite the difference in the root cause of each type, in all three, people with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.

“It’s important to recognize disorders like sleep apnea, because they are linked to very common diseases such high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke,” Dr. Jones said.

Scott & White will be holding the seminar - A Practical Guide: Recognition and Management of Sleep Disorders in the Primary Care Office - 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Hilton Garden Inn.

The event is for physicians and nurse practitioners who practice family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics and will feature evidence-based approached to obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome and pediatric sleep issues.

The American College of Chest Physicians will offer this program in 20 locations around the country. The seminar in Temple is the only one to be held in Texas.

People need to be aware that sleep disorders are common and since the population spends about a third of their life asleep, it’s important for individuals to know if they’re having a problem, Arroliga said.

Primary care physicians will be the first to hear about any sleeping problems a patient might be having and if that health care provider is in tune with sleep disorders and their implications it will mean better overall care, Dr. Jones said.

Two percent of women and four percent of men have sleep apnea, she said. Another sleep disorder, restless leg syndrome, is as common as depression.

Adults who wake up gasping for breath or have been told they hold their breath when sleeping need to be seen by their physician, she said.

Most people aren’t even aware they are sleep deprived, Dr. Jones said.

“Children can have sleep apnea too,” she said.

Many children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, because they’re having difficulty concentrating in school, actually have sleep apnea, Dr. Jones said.

“Instead of getting drowsy and sleepy like adults, children can get hyper,” she said.

Dr. Jones, a specialist in pulmonary and critical care medicine, said sleep disorders were not on her radar when deciding the type of medicine she would practice, but became aware of the issue during her residency.

“What I love about sleep disorders is that it encompasses many fields of medicine - pediatrics, geriatrics, internal medicine, psychiatry, neurology, cardiovascular disease,” she said. “It can be tied to anything and it’s such an important part of life.”

Scott & White has been approved to expand its sleep lab from seven to 12 beds and eventually 16, Arroliga said.

Patients who spend the night in Scott & White’s sleep lab will leave the next morning with a diagnosis, Dr. Jones said.

The physician ordinarily has a pretty good idea what the problem is before the patient undergoes the sleep study, but there are occasional surprises, she said.

“Sometimes the surprise is how bad the apnea is,” Dr. Jones said. “It’s shocking to the patient how many times they quit breathing in an hour.”

Once the problem is diagnosed it’s usually easy to get the patient to comply with the recommended treatment, because they recognize how much better they feel, Arroliga said.

Also, treating the sleep disorder can affect other issues the patient has, he said. There are patients who have both hypertension and sleep apnea whose need for blood pressure medication is reduced when the sleeping disorder is treated.

According to the National Sleep Foundation nearly 50 million Americans chronically suffer from sleep problems and disorders that affect their careers, their personal relationships and safety on the roads.