Dr. Krishna Mettu appreciates the importance of good sleep so much that he lists it among his favorite pastimes, along with traveling and kite flying. His friends call him “Sleep Krishna.”

The quality of the six to eight hours spent sleeping affects the quality of the next 16-18 hours of daytime functioning, he points out, as well as a person’s health over the short and long term.

That’s why, after completing a residency in neurology, he did a fellowship in Clinical Sleep Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia. With his continued passion and fascination of “The role of interfaces of Sleep Medicine, its functional integration with Autonomic Nervous system and medical branches, he pursued another fellowship in Autonomic Neurophysiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at the Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, MA. This evolving field focuses on evaluation of autonomic dysfunction in people who experience symptoms of unexplained light headedness or passing out, heart palpitations, low blood pressure, diabetic autonomic dysfunction, abnormal sweat disorders and numbness, tingling or pain in extremities.

Dr. Mettu joined the Jefferson City Medical Group in October 2009, specializing in the treatment of sleep-related disorders and its interface with other medical specialties. He became the director of the Sleep Center at St. Mary’s Health Center following the retirement of Dr. Damasus Jayamanne and has been instrumental in successful advancement of the Comprehensive Sleep Disorders Clinics at JCMG and American Academy of Sleep Medicine accredited Sleep Center for SSM Health Care System, in Mid-Missouri.

While Dr. Mettu was in medical school, still undecided which specialty to pursue, his grandparents lived with his family due to their health issues. He recalls that they snored heavily, often pausing in their breathing and sometimes gasping for air as they slept.

It worried him, but also intrigued him. “Sleep has been my passion,” he says. “Good, healthy sleep contributes to a person’s success.”

Sleep medicine is a relatively young specialty, and its importance is now being widely recognized. Recent scientific evidence has linked sleep apnea to stroke, heart attacks, cardiac arrhythmias, mood, memory, diabetes, deadly accidents and several health related issues.

It’s estimated that one out of four to five people experience sleep problems at some point in their lives. Advances in sleep medicine have improved the diagnosis and treatment of various disorders, such as sleep apnea, hypersomnolence, narcolepsy, insomnia, parasomnia and restless legs syndrome.

Since sleep is vital to a healthy life, Dr. Mettu recommends that individuals consult their primary care physicians if they have ongoing sleep problems. Persistent sleep problems should be evaluated and treated by a specialist.

Resolving a sleep problem, he says, can change the quality of life, sometimes overnight. “The moment they get good sleep, they notice a difference the very next morning,” he says.

He and his wife, have a young son, whose nickname represents the dream stage of sleep – “REM” and daughter who’s nicknamed as “Delta”, which represents the deeper stage of sleep. Both are synonymous to our dreams and deep to our hearts,” his father says.

In the last few years, Dr. Mettu has developed a new passion for clinical research into the bidirectional interface of Sleep Medicine and Chronic Pain; understanding and identifying non-pharmaceutical modalities for the management for Restless Legs Syndrome and Chronic Painful conditions.