Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Bishop. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
David , we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
Finding my purpose of working on sleep health disparities and equity was borne out of necessity. Since my mid-twenties, I struggled with extreme fatigue and attributed the cause to many things in my life, i.e. college, a stressful job, a new baby, etc. The true cause was hiding in plain sight and my wife had a front-row seat as she watched me struggle night after night while I slept. I would fall asleep anywhere; at the dinner table, anytime we went out to friends’ houses, or at the movies. This did not make for a fun companion for anyone. Not only was I fatigued, I was also struggling with depression, and trouble concentrating and had also been identified as a glaucoma suspect. I had trouble focusing in large groups to hold a conversation, the sights and sounds around me were overwhelming and I could not focus. My wife urged me to follow up with my doctor to determine the cause of my constant fatigue. As a young man in his mid-thirties, I should not be this exhausted, scattered, and developing glaucoma. Something must be at the root of this.
In order to get diagnosed, I saw a board-certified sleep physician and underwent an in-clinic overnight sleep study. Sleep apnea is defined as having repeated collapses of the airway while asleep. When the airway collapses either partially (hypopnea) or fully (apnea) for at least 10 seconds for at least 5 events per hour, it meets the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s criteria for sleep apnea. There are three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central, and mixed. Obstructive apnea occurs when the muscles in your throat relax while asleep and either narrow or close your airway thus restricting oxygen intake. Central sleep apnea occurs when the brain doesn’t send the right signals to the muscles that control breathing. Lastly, mixed sleep apnea is a blend of both obstructive and central. In addition, there are different ranges of sleep apnea: mild (5-14 events per hour), moderate (15-29 events per hour), and severe (30+ events per hour).
I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea in 2006. My airway collapses either partially or fully thirty-one times every hour I sleep. This means thirty-one times an hour my sleep stages are getting disrupted. Thirty-one times an hour my brain and organs are deprived of regular flow of oxygen. Thirty-one times an hour my heart is working harder than necessary. Not to mention, thirty-one times an hour my poor wife is listening to me gasping or choking to reopen my airway.
My treatment journey compelled me to think of how many other people have had a similar challenge recognizing they have a sleep disorder. I wanted to learn more about this condition and its impacts on overall physical and mental health. I was motivated to learn what related conditions were associated with sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. I also wanted to learn what range of treatments were available and who was working on the next breakthrough treatment to treat sleep apnea. My journey into sleep apnea advocacy had officially begun and my purpose was found!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
A result of my journey in learning all I could about Sleep Apnea, my passion project was born. Sleep Equity Project is a not-for-profit organization focused on education and awareness for underserved populations on the impact of poor sleep and sleep disorders. Most people are unaware of the impact of sleep on their daily quality of life and how it contributes to the development of co-morbid chronic health conditions like hypertension, depression, anxiety, and type 2 diabetes (to name a few). I believe this is both a public health issue and an issue for us as individuals. The sheer complexity of the barriers spanning structural, cultural, institutional, individual, interpersonal, and historical showed me that a concerted effort was needed to make progress. Sleep Equity Project seeks to find solutions to issue of access and cost of sleep disorder testing and treatment across underserved populations.
Our main focus is collaborating with various organizations to spread the word about the impact of poor sleep and sleep disorders. Sleep Equity Project recently participated in an awareness campaign (#CountonSleep) along with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) to raise awareness of sleep apnea. This effort was a three-year grant awarded to AASM by the Center for Disease Control. Another project is working with various organizations that utilize Community Health Workers to incorporate sleep health education into their already busy mix of areas they currently use to assist communities. Their role is invaluable, and most community health workers come from the same communities they serve. They play a key role in community health promotion and navigation. A third effort of focus is to assist in providing sleep health education and screening for sleep disorders in the community health setting. It is important to have information readily available in neighborhood health clinics to address access. Education about sleep and sleep disorders also can be found through the AASM website. I’ve had the honor of serving as a patient representative on a committee with AASM alongside sleep physicians to ensure language is patient-friendly and easily consumable.
Another focus of the Sleep Equity Project is to participate and advocate for sleep research as well as diversification of the study population. We are currently involved in two studies by sleep researchers who received grant funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for comparative research on sleep disorder interventions. These studies have a focus on improving the knowledge base of sleep disorders treatment and including health disparities and minority involvement as an added dimension.
In June 2024, I was appointed to a four-year term on the Sleep Disorder Research Advisory Board of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This role allows me to advocate for increased federal research focus on underserved and under-resourced populations, who are disproportionately affected by sleep health disparities.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three skills I think are essential to my journey are intellectual curiosity, being open to learning, and speaking to a diverse array of people about their experiences.
The drive for knowledge about new concepts, ideas, and fields of knowledge has helped me think more critically about the systemic barriers faced by underserved populations. Another quality that has helped me is being open to learning more about all aspects of various sleep disorders and chronic health conditions. Also, as a nonprofit founder, I’ve had to learn a great deal about how to establish, nurture, and grow an organization. This openness is essential to continued growth both personally, intellectually, and professionally. It also helps with resiliency as you encounter failures and challenges which are essential to gaining insight. The issues that cause sleep health disparities are complex and involve multiple levels of determinants. The openness to collaboration across sleep medicine, public health, patient advocacy, governmental entities, and academia is a key aspect to discovering more viable approaches to solutions. I also believe the ability to speak to a diverse group of people about their personal experiences is key to broadening everyone’s perspectives. The issue of poor sleep health is so prevalent, and every patient’s story holds a different perspective. The United States has a diverse population and experiences with sleep quality and quantity vary widely across the country. Being culturally competent is essential to working with diverse populations to build trust and address health disparities.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
There are two challenges I’ve faced since establishing the Sleep Equity Project. One is the age-old issue of attracting funding to support the mission of the Sleep Equity Project. The fact that sleep disorders are grossly underdiagnosed in individuals across the United States has meant that few organizations outside of the sleep medicine and research community see it as a priority. It has been challenging to find foundations that even mention an interest in addressing sleep health disparities and their impact on quality of life and earlier mortality. Sleep Equity Project leads the nation in helping to elevate the focus on sleep health disparities from a patient perspective.
The second challenge is making the need to get restorative sleep, which includes quantity and quality, a priority for the general population in the United States. Sleep is something that runs through many of the dimensions of wellness: intellectual, environmental, emotional, financial, social, spiritual, occupational, and physical. Specifically in underserved populations, sleep can be easily deprioritized against other critical needs of shelter, food, safety, etc.
Sleep Equity Project is committed to helping highlight the inequities to access and education while also being a passionate patient advocate voice to future research and treatments.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sleepequityproject.org/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-bishop-msw-lcsw-7525a313b
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