Mikhail Poluektov

Abstract: The concept of sleep medicine implies that our knowledge on the human body functioning during sleep can help in developing new methods of diagnosis and treatment. Since sleep is a product of the central nervous system, it is obvious that nervous diseases can have a greater impact on its occurrence or continuation. This can be registered by objective methods. An example of the importance of such approach can be the differentiation of the psychogenic neurological signs (pseudotremor, pseudodystonia, functional hemiparesis). They disappear during sleep, since voluntary control of motor functions is lost. Sleep can be disturbed for years (more than 50) before the clinical manifestationof a neurological disease. In the study of REM sleep behavior disorder 95% of cases of synucleinopathy (Parkinson's disease or dementia with Lewy bodies) develops within 20 years.
It is possible to achieve a better control of the course of nervous disease by improving sleep. The use of CPAP therapy in patients with ischemic stroke with obstructive sleep apnea leads to a 2.9-fold decrease of recurrent strokes. Improved sleep after the course of cognitive-behavioral therapy of insomnia is accompanied by a decrease of systemic inflammation. The activation of the glymphatic drainage system of the brain during sleep was discovered ten years ago. It looks promising that the pharmacological or nonpharmacological stimulation of this system leads to the maintenance of cognitive reserves in the elderly.

Speaker: Mikhail Poluektov works as an associate professor at the Department of Nervous Diseases at Sechenov University in Moscow. He is also the head of the sleep medicine department at the same institution and the acting president of the Russian Society of Somnologists. In 1993 he graduated from the Medical University by I.M. Sechenov, then specialized in neurology. His PhD, received in 1998, was devoted to studying the effect of autonomic neuropathy on sleep-disordered breathing. As an associate professor, Mikhail Poluektov teaches sleep medicine in neurology and general medicine, organizes conferences on somnology, and publishes regular issues on sleep disorders in «S.S. Korsakov Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry» and «Effective pharmacotherapy». Serves as a reviewer editor in «Frontiers in Psychiatry», «Frontiers in Neurology». Author of more than 250 publications in Russian and foreign journals, 5 monographs in Russian, 3 popular books about sleep.