Month: August 2004

A violent encounter at Friendship Court on the night of Saturday, August 21, between two white Charlottesville police officers and Kerry Cook, a black wanted man, ended with one of the cops firing a single shot into Cook’s stomach—that much eyewitnesses and the police department agree upon. But what happened during the struggle off Garrett Street, which left Cook in a coma at the UVA Medical Center, has left residents of the public housing complex on Garrett Street, and, perhaps, a large segment of Charlottesville’s black community, disturbed, confused and angry.

Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo and City Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman are keeping quiet about the incident, citing an ongoing investigation, though Longo has issued a few paragraphs about the Friendship Court shooting in several press releases to the media.

But while City officials are tight-lipped, eyewitnesses to the shooting and many members of the black community are speaking out loudly, saying around 100 Friendship Court residents, including many children, saw police officers William Sclafani and Jeremy Carper severely beat Cook, who was resisting arrest, before getting one handcuff on him, dragging Cook into an apartment and then shooting him.

Chapman says the shooting was the first involving City police since a fatal incident in December 2002, in which Jonathan Jermaine Breeden, 23, shot himself in the head during a shootout with police near 800 Page St. Police were later deemed to have acted appropriately in the gunfight, Chapman says.

Charlottesville police have said that during the struggle with Cook, “both officers used escalating levels of force in an attempt to bring him under control. Ultimately, Officer Sclafani fired a single gunshot that struck Mr. Cook, thus bringing the violent confrontation to an end.”

The shooting was not Sclafani’s first encounter with Cook. C-VILLE Weekly has learned that Sclafani arrested the 33-year-old Cook in July 2003 for assault and battery. According to the arrest warrant, Cook, who has a lengthy rap sheet, was living in Kents Store, which is in Fluvanna County, at the time of the arrest. Sclafani arrested him for the assault and battery of Sanitha Grooms, with whom Cook had lived for years. The case was later waived.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Chapman says he can’t discuss whether Sclafani’s previous meeting with Cook is under investigation, or any other case specifics until the ongoing investigation is completed. Chapman says a lab in Richmond must analyze forensic evidence, which could tack time onto the investigation.

“It can be a matter of months. We hope to move things along faster,” Chapman says.

Word has traveled fast around Friendship Court, however. And according to Mary Carey, who witnessed the incident and is the president of the Friendship Court Neighborhood Association, the strong consensus among her neighbors is that Sclafani and Carper used excessive force while trying to subdue Cook.

“The way they were beating that man back and forth, it was ridiculous,” Carey says, while demonstrating the baton swings in her tidy ground-floor apartment, approximately 75 feet from the site of the shooting. “You could hear the whacks with every blow.”

Carey, a 22-year resident of Friendship Court, says she was drawn out of her apartment that night by screams coming from outside of the adjacent apartment building where Grooms, Cook’s former live-in girlfriend, was residing.

According to Carey and Lolita Smith, a former Friendship Court resident who was at the complex on the night of the shooting, Grooms had occupied the Friendship Court apartment for about a month. They say Grooms told them that she told a drunk Cook to leave her apartment out of fear that he would cause trouble and get her evicted. When he wouldn’t leave,

Grooms called the police, according to both witnesses and the department.

When the two officers arrived, the violence erupted. After the single shot was fired, the complex was swarmed by police officers, some of whom were toting pump-action shotguns, according to Smith and Carey. Smith says she whisked Grooms and her baby daughter out of the apartment amidst the chaos.

On Sunday, August 23, Friendship Court was quiet, with Smith calling the atmosphere “the calm before the storm.”

Though Carey says police detectives interviewed residents on Sunday and Monday, she says the police presence has been minimal after that initial flurry.

“They won’t have anything to do with us,” Carey says of City police.

Mayor David Brown and Kendra Hamilton, a City councilor, came to Friendship Court to speak with neighbors on Sunday, but no other meetings between residents and City officials have been scheduled.

“People are definitely upset,” Brown says. “It is a tension. To some degree, it’s unavoidable.”

However, Brown says he supports Chief Longo’s decision to keep his public comments about the shooting minimal until the facts emerge from a full investigation.

Deborah Wyatt, an attorney who has challenged local police in lawsuits, including a recently filed suit over the Department’s DNA dragnet, also thinks Longo is handling the situation correctly.

“Even despite the public clamor, I think it’s worth doing the responsible thing,” Wyatt says.

But back at Friendship Court, residents’ trust in the police force has suffered a heavy blow.

Asked how long it might take to win back trust in her community, Smith says, “It’s going to take a long time.”

“It makes you wonder,” Carey says of the shooting and the DNA dragnet. “Is it safe to walk up to a police officer and say ‘hi’ and not be afraid he’s going to pull his gun out and shoot you?”

Earl Smith thinks big. Straining to hit the highest notes of a Judas Priest anthem, tossing cheerleaders in the air or standing up to the mayor, Smith lives to the tune of a rock and roll chorus. Too loud for you? Too bad.

 “I thought he was the most obnoxious man I ever met,” says Ellen Smith, Earl’s wife, recalling her first encounter with this year’s winner of C-VILLE’s “Put Me on the Cover” contest.

 “I was obnoxious,” says Earl, laughing and slapping me with the back of his hand, his trademarked signal that he’s about to say something hilarious. “Hey, I was a rock god.” Har har har.

 And Smith has the pictures to prove it. On the wall of the Firehouse Bar and Grill, the Grady Avenue pub he runs with Ellen, he keeps a black-and-white photo of one of his first rock god moments—Albemarle High School’s 12th grade talent show. Wearing an Izod shirt with the sleeves ripped out, Smith’s band, Danger Zone, ripped through 20 minutes of tunes by Judas Priest, the Scorpions and Loverboy before teachers shut off the power.

 There’s a little secret that every rock god understands, a theorem that’s made Smith, a 40-year-old native Charlottesvillian, successful in a wide range of activities, from Spandex-clad hair metal to comic books to hardball politics, and here it is: People want to believe. As a singer or a salesman—whether he’s belting out “Hot Blooded” or telling you his line of “Big Cock” t-shirts (featuring a muscular cartoon rooster) could be the next big thing—Earl Smith displays not a hint of pretension or dishonesty. He makes you believe.

 “People do seem to listen to me,” he says. “My philosophy is that whatever I do creates something in you, and whatever you do creates something in somebody else. I carry that around with me, and maybe people see that.”

Smith’s career as rock god and rabble rouser had an unlikely origin—cheerleading. He was one of seven men in Albemarle High School’s national champion cheerleading squad in 1980.

 “Hey, you can make fun all you want, but it was hard work,” says Smith. “The football team sucked at the time. Who would you rather ride home on the bus with?”

 After Smith and Danger Zone said goodbye to AHS in classic heavy metal fashion, he fronted a band called Revenge that played TRAX during the Spandex and lipstick-laden ’80s metal scene.

 “The scene in Charlottesville hasn’t changed,” says Smith. “You’ve got so much talent, but nobody wants to play with each other. Come on! How many nights can you sit on the couch with your girlfriend?”

 He found greater success with his first touring band, Empire. Then he moved to glam-soaked Virginia Beach in 1986 to play with Hooker. They broke up in 1988 when their drummer moved to Los Angeles to play with Racer X and, eventually, Judas Priest.

 In those days of coke-fueled rock ‘n’ roll, Smith says he never touched drugs and only rarely had a drink. But he had one vice—David Lee Roth-style stretch pants that earned him the name “Spandex Earl.”

 “I couldn’t afford those clothes, so my Mom made me some great pants,” says Smith. “Different color legs, stripes, fringes. That’s what you call unconditional love.”

Besides a fearless fashion sense and a strong voice, Smith’s great talent is an energetic charm that makes anyone he talks to feel like they’re in on the joke. It worked well on the stage, but after the demise of Hooker, Smith moved to Pennsylvania, and put his personality to a more socially conscious use.

 As he tried unsuccessfully to form an original band, Smith worked as a counselor at a children’s home that took troubled kids off the street and socialized them before placing them in foster homes.

 “It was tough,” says Smith. “You had to teach them to get up in the morning and brush their teeth, and not to poke that other kid in the eye with a cigarette.”

 The work lost its luster for Smith after he helped a particularly troubled boy succeed in school by promising to take him to a Van Halen concert. The boy finished the year with Bs and Cs, but after Smith bought the tickets the home’s headmaster said the boy couldn’t go to the concert.

 “It was sad,” says Smith. “The kid’s probably in jail right now.”

 Smith spent the next eight months painting cars before Raleigh rock band Lizzy Star promised him $200 a week to sing for them. “They paid me, but the band only lasted three months,” says Smith.

 Lizzy Star turned into Jinx, and eventually brought Smith more than just a temporary paycheck. In 1989 they played weekly gigs at a Newport News club called the Crystal Inn, where owner Ellen Petrin took offense to Smith’s cocky personality.

 “I didn’t like him,” says Ellen. “But I’ve been in the bar business all my life and I’ve heard a million singers, and he’s the best.”

 But as Smith hung around, he became Ellen’s buddy, and helped her run the club. Soon they were dating, and they’ve been married for eight years.

 “She taught me something,” says Smith. “If you’re in a band and everybody’s yelling for you to play ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ if it makes people like you, then you play it. People might say it’s stupid, but who cares? Drink more beer. Have more fun. We wanted to be everybody’s buddy.”

 By 1992, Ellen and Earl were tired of the club scene, but Smith’s apartment was piled thigh deep with Earl’s other vice (besides Spandex)—comic books. “Ellen asked me why I didn’t start my own store. I was scared, but we got a 900-square-foot space in Gloucester and opened Hero’s Comics,” says Smith.

 The store flourished, eventually expanding to three branches, thanks to Earl’s rock ’n’ roll approach. “You just make people feel good about being there,” he says. But in the mid-’90s, the market for comic books fell out as companies tried to capitalize on renewed interest in the genre by flooding the market with what Smith calls “junk.”

 Smith sold the store, and he and Ellen moved back to Charlottesville in 1994. He bounced around—working for Sprint, running 30 Central Virginia Subway sandwich shops, managing the short-lived Boudreaux’s restaurant and dance club on Rio Road (where he earned fame and a Virginia Broadcasting Award for the “Uncle Boudreaux” character he played in local commercials).

 In 2002 he bought the Bomb Shelter in the Monticello Dairy Building on Grady Avenue and renamed the joint The Firehouse, after his stepson Eric, a firefighter in James City County.

 A year later, Smith looked out his window and saw City workers marking underground gas lines around the vacant strip of grass outside his bar. After some investigation, Smith discovered that then-Mayor Maurice Cox and former Planning Director Satyendra Huja wanted to build a housing development there, to be called Preston Commons.

 “I had two Subway stores that went through street remodeling,” he says. “They went from $5,000 a week in revenue to less than $2,000 a week.”

 Smith teamed up with John Coleman, who owns Central Battery in the Monticello Dairy Building. The two made a potent political barrier to Cox and Huja’s development plans—Coleman delivered eloquent pleas to reconsider, while Smith passionately denounced City Hall arrogance. The pair rallied other nearby business owners and City councilors, who eventually defeated Preston Commons.

 “It was a bad idea, and they tried to hide behind all these big words,” Smith says. “I’m the guy who will tell you that you’re stupid. I shouldn’t be that way, but that’s the way I’ve always been.”

 Now that the Preston Commons battle is won, don’t think Smith is out of the political game. “I’m still watching what City Council does,” he says. “If I don’t like something they’re doing, I’m going to jump on them.”

It’s 11am on a Tuesday, and Firehouse regulars are already racking up billiard balls for a lunchtime game. Eating chicken wings and a pair of pickle spears, construction worker Tommy Crawford says that if it weren’t for Earl, there’d be no home for the pool leagues that Firehouse hosts on Mondays and Tuesdays, with in-house tournaments on Sundays and Wednesdays.

 “I come in here almost every day,” says Crawford. He says he looks forward to the times when Smith pulls out a guitar and belts out a few classic rock tunes.

 “My favorite is ‘Highway to Hell,’ or any of the old AC/DC tunes,” says Crawford. Like almost everyone who meets Smith, Crawford’s become a true believer.

 “It’s like he’s got Bon Scott’s soul,” says Crawford. “It’s dead on. It gets me all tore up.”—John Borgmeyer

A: Sad but true, Anne (and not exactly breaking news): Virginia has its issues with gay people. The extent of the discomfort, however, does not reach to renaming towns whose highway exit signs prompt pointing and giggling. In fact, according to the Greene County Administrator’s office, the town of Dyke does not even exist. See, the county administrator’s office explains that you need “a charter, mayor and council members” in order to be considered a town. Details, schmetails—it’s on the map, isn’t it?

 Town, area, whatever…according to the secretary of Greene County Administrator Julius L. Morris, who preferred not to grace Ace with the knowledge of her name, “the area of Dyke has not been renamed to the knowledge of this office.” Before hanging up, though, she did mention that the area out by the Blue Ridge School is known as St. George. Eureka, a clue at last!

 The school, founded in 1909 as a co-ed vocational school, was restructured in 1962 to its present incarnation as an all-boys school for students who “did not realize their full potential in other settings.” While admissions officer Betty Morris conceded that the Blue Ridge School had changed its mailing address from Dyke to St. George five or six years ago, she did not acknowledge that it had anything to do with the sexual undercurrents of posting mail to “Dyke.”

 Explained Morris, “We share the same zip code as Dyke…it’s very close, but the Blue Ridge School is in St. George…[the mail] just comes through the Dyke post office.” Apparently, back in the day, the Blue Ridge School had its own post office, and its recent change of address occurred when the school revived the former campus post office. The mail still goes through Dyke but is then sent on to the school, which, wink wink, nudge nudge, is in St. George.

 But back to the offending word in question. Its mysterious origins reportedly range from a Celtic queen named Boudicca (Bou-dyke-ah) who fought the Roman Empire 1,937 years ago to an abbreviation of “hermaphrodite.” Not surprisingly, Dyke, Virginia, has equally ambiguous origins: In fact, it seems Dyke was just born that way.

“All I want to do is fall asleep,”says Matt (not his real name), a new Charlottesville resident. Since moving to town, Matt describes his sleep pattern as “very intermittent. I can’t seem to fall into a deep, sustained sleep.” After a restless night, when morning comes he says he feels tired and “resigned that I have to wake up because it’s time to go to work.” The long nights are starting to take a toll. “On a scale of 1 to 10, this is around a 7,” he says.

 Matt’s in good (bad) company. According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly two-thirds of Americans get fewer than the recommended eight hours of sleep per night, and nearly one-third get less than seven hours. Throw in the popularity of “power naps,” the skyrocketing sales of caffeinated energy drinks, and the increased use of over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids, and a troubling picture of America’s sleep habits emerges. Why are we a stressed-out, puffy-eyed nation staring at the ceiling at 3am, desperate for some sweet dreams?

 Thankfully for Matt and other budding insomniacs, Charlottesville is drawing sleep medicine experts to the area with the recent opening of Martha Jefferson Hospital’s Sleep Center and a Sleep Disorders Center at UVA that doubled its patient-care capacity just more than a year ago. Both enterprises reflect how the study of sleep has become one of the hottest new fields in the medical profession, a testament to both an over-worked, sleep-deprived population and recent advances in our understanding of why sleep is essential to good health.

The impossible dream

Sleep has become such a precious commodity that in Manhattan, weary workaholics can purchase a 20-minute nap for $14 in one of MetroNap’s private “pods”—individual space-age reclining chairs complete with sleep-inducing music piped in through headphones.

 Charlottesville doesn’t currently boast any fancy pods, and ultimately it doesn’t matter. While a nap may help you get through a long workday, it’s no substitute for a full night of rest. Skimping on sleep can carry serious health consequences, as medical research shows that lack of sleep factors into weight loss, heart disease and can incapacitate drivers much like alcohol when behind the wheel.

 And then there’s the mental fatigue. Studies have shown that sleep-deprived people have a harder time staying focused and productive at work. In one study, conducted at the University of California, in San Diego, neurologists examining the brain’s ability to handle various problems found that overtired patients fared worse on most questions, including simple arithmetic, than when tested after a good night’s rest.

 How can you tell if you’re getting enough sleep? If you wake feeling refreshed and your sleep is of good quality, then you’re getting the right amount of shut-eye. While most experts recommend eight hours a night, the amount of sleep you need depends on your natural sleep rhythm, or circadian clock, which signals your body when it’s time to sleep and wake up. Everyone has his or her own clock, set to their individual schedule.

 “You can’t fool that clock,” explains Dr. Will Hammond, a local pulmonary and sleep medicine specialist affiliated with Martha Jefferson Hospital. “That’s why people experience jet lag and why some people have trouble working the night shift.”

 Hammond says most people’s “clock” dips between 4pm and 6pm, which helps explain the tradition of afternoon siestas (or as the case may be here in Charlottesville, the daily run to the coffee bar for a shot of caffeine). A similar drop happens between 4am and 6am, when most people are in deep sleep.

 Many teenagers have a “delayed” clock, a cycle that explains their tendency, if allowed, to sleep until noon. “Teenagers will go to bed at 2am, but they’re up at noon. Elderly people may go to sleep at 7pm and be up at 4am,” Hammond says. Elderly people have an “advanced” clock that allows them to be up at sunrise, fully rested and refreshed.

 If you’re sleepless several nights in a row—traveling, taking care of a child, or partying, whatever the case may be—you’ll begin to build up adenosine in your brain, a chemical that signals your body that it’s finally time to sleep. Caffeine is a miracle pick-me-up because it works by blocking the receptors for adenosine, temporarily putting off the urge to sleep. But that double Americano won’t keep you up forever.

 The good news for the seriously sleep-deprived is, “You can make up a sleep debt,” Hammond says. “If you stay up three days in a row, instead of sleeping eight hours, you might sleep 11 hours for two nights. You can make it up within days.”

 When you can’t make it up, when prolonged sleeplessness occurs, it’s time to see the professionals. Dr. Chris Winter, an energetic young neurologist, presides over the Martha Jefferson Sleep Lab. His interest in sleep medicine first developed as an undergraduate at the UVA, where he studied with renowned sleep medicine expert, and founder of the American Sleep Apnea Association, Dr. Paul Suratt.

 “There’s just such a demand in this community,” says Winter, who sees patients with irregular sleeping patterns, sleep apnea, restless legs and insomnia. In response, Martha Jefferson Sleep Center will soon be opening more of their overnight rooms to reduce the current two- to three-month wait time for an appointment. Even though Winter just began working at the Sleep Center, “expansion,” he says, “is the first order of business.”

 Martha Jefferson’s new Sleep Center is located in a renovated historic home on quiet, tree-lined Lexington Avenue behind the hospital. The hospital located the Sleep Center in the old home because it is “more comfortable for the patients, and more representative of a normal night’s sleep,” says Terri Bream, manager of Sleep Medicine Services, who has been working to make the Sleep Center a reality since the idea was first conceived in 2000.

 Bream has gone to great lengths to make the Sleep Center welcoming, including planting tulips bulbs outside, ordering a porch swing and adding faux finish to the walls. The result is a remarkably different approach to studying sleep disorders that may make patients feel more like they’re spending the night at a bed and breakfast than a medical facility.

The ABCs of gettings ZZZs

Many people experience temporary insomnia during their lifetime, but prolonged insomnia is rare, and as Winter notes, “Insomnia is a symptom, it’s not a diagnosis.” The causes of insomnia vary, but are often directly related to our emotional or psychological well-being. “Depression is a big cause of insomnia,” explains Winter, “A lot of times people have an event, they lose a spouse or a job.”

 Sleep aids like Sonata or Ambien are often prescribed in extreme cases of insomnia, but doctors like Winter say prescription sleep aids “are not a solution on a long-term basis.” Hammond agrees, saying he will only use sleep aids in “the lowest dose, for the least amount of time, while searching for a cause.”

 Sometimes simple changes to your sleep environment can be the difference between tossing and turning and pleasant dreams. “Don’t make your bedroom into an office,” advises Hammond. Take out all beeping, blinking and buzzing electronics, which can distract would-be snoozers. The same holds true for pets, whose “clocks” are often not matched well with their owner.

 “Going to bed at 11, but not falling asleep until 2—that’s a sign of anxiety,” explains Winter. People who have trouble falling asleep are often worrying or doing what Winter calls “running the list,” fretting over all the things they need to do the next day, instead of relaxing to drift into sleep naturally. To clear your mind, Winter suggests writing down a to-do list at least an hour before bed. [See sidebar on page 17 for more tips on getting a good night’s sleep.]

 Contrary to popular belief, falling asleep at the movies or during your lunch hour doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re a “good sleeper.” In fact, it could signal a much more serious problem. “People should be able to go to bed, get enough sleep, wake up refreshed and not have to take a nap,” says Hammond.

 If you have daytime drowsiness and suspect that a poor night’s sleep is to blame, you may end up in the capable hands of Ruth Guchu, the chief technologist at UVA’s Sleep Disorders Center. Nearly 20 years ago, when Guchu became a board-certified sleep technician, she was one of only 153 board-certified sleep technicians in the country. Today, there are thousands of certified polysomnographic technicians, trained to “read” patients sleep behavior.

 One of Guchu’s biggest areas of concentration is sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder that more than 12 million people suffer from. Simply put, sleep apnea is your airway collapsing while you sleep. Your body wakes itself in an attempt to breathe, and this can happen repeatedly, in some cases hundreds of times a night, leaving the person tired the next day from constantly interrupted sleep.

 Sleep apnea sufferers may not even know they can’t breathe, because they fall back asleep quickly after regaining their breath, and are only left with a few telltale signs of apnea—daytime sleepiness, a dry mouth from snoring all night or morning headaches. Often, it’s the bed partner of someone with sleep apnea who first notices the loud snoring and disrupted breathing of their mate. The only surefire way to tell whether you have a case of harmless snoring, or a more serious case of sleep apnea, is to spend the night at one of Charlottesville’s sleep centers.

Night owls

The eight overnight rooms in the UVA Sleep Disorders Center are sparsely decorated yet comfortable, with a television and private half bathroom. An infrared camera in the ceiling of each room, as unobtrusive as a smoke alarm, gives sleep technicians a way to monitor both the equipment and the patient from a nearby computer station. In one room, a sleep technician tapes wires onto a large teddy bear, to demonstrate to a patient how multicolored wires and sensors will allow technicians to read a 22-channel recording, in real time, of a patient’s heart rate, brain waves, muscle tone and other sleep indicators.

 “We aim to get between six to eight hours of recording,” Guchu explains. Most patients arrive for an overnight stay around 8pm, lights are out between 10 and 11:30pm, and patients can leave as early as 7am the next morning.

 Guchu shows me the chart of a sleep study patient. Though the name has been taken off the file to protect the person’s identity, we can still see, in lines that jump across the screen like a needle on a lie-detector’s polygraph, where the patient stopped breathing momentarily. Normal breathing looks like a regular, rhythmic pattern of deep drops and rises, but when sleep apnea occurs, the lines at once become jagged, compressed and alarmingly shallow. Guchu points to the screen, “Here, they are using 20 percent or less of their normal breath,” she says, describing an episode of sleep apnea.

 The most commonly recommended treatment for sleep disordered breathing, or sleep apnea, is a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) mask worn during the night that provides a “mild stream of air that prompts your airway open to breathe while asleep,” explains Guchu. Although the mask is a desirable option when compared to surgery, “it is a learned process,” says Guchu, and people often need time to get used to it. “When I first came here, it was a really hard sell, but now it is getting to be common knowledge, or people know someone who is using a CPAP mask, and that has really helped us.”

 You don’t have to be stuck channel-surfing, counting sheep or putting up with a snoring, kicking bed partner; sleep problems are definitely worthy of treatment. For example, the snoring associated with sleep apnea is often viewed as an “annoyance,” Winter says, “but we now know that sleep apnea has very far reaching effects on health.”

 Doctors now say that a good night’s sleep is essential to good health, as important as maintaining good dental hygiene or regular exercise. Although the mysteries of sleep’s restorative powers are still unraveling, Hammond reminds us, “Sleep is an active process,” a process we should do our best to not interfere with.

Dreamweavers
How to book an appointment with local sleep docs

If you think you might have a sleep disorder, talk to your primary care physician about your predicament before booking an appointment at one of Charlottesville’s medical sleep centers. After seeing your doctor, “then they would refer you to a sleep physician,” explains Terri Bream, manager of sleep medicine services at Martha Jefferson Sleep Center.

 A sleep physician can rule out any other causes of your sleep problem and, if necessary, book you an overnight appointment at a sleep center.

 The cost of an overnight stay at one of Charlottesville’s sleep centers can range from $1,800 to $2,400, although “Generally, it costs about $2,000 per study,” says Bream.

 The good news is that most health insurance companies will pay for a sleep study. The bad news is that many insurance companies require pre-authorization, warns Bream. So to avoid getting stuck footing the bill, be sure to follow the rules of your health insurance provider.

 Even if you think you can self-diagnose your problem, having your primary care physician make a referral is “the simplest and most general way,” to get an appointment at the Sleep Center, says Ruth Guchu, chief technologist at the University of Virginia Sleep Center.

 Once you’ve survived the complicated process of getting referrals and have secured an appointment, the rest is easy. “For most patients, they can be studied and treated in one night,” says Bream.—K.W.

Assume the position
On your back? On your belly? The best body bet for a good rest

“I recommend side or back,” says Paul Stangil, a local chiropractor and nutrition consultant, on how to lie for the best night’s sleep.

 “Side is a semi-fetal position, and you can put a pillow between your legs to keep legs parallel, “ he says. “If your legs aren’t parallel, one leg folds over, and that twists the spine.”

 Sleeping on your stomach may be comfortable, but this position can put unnecessary pressure on your neck and back. Due to the number of nerves coming out of your neck, “turning your head to the side and sleeping on your stomach can affect the alignment of your spine,” Stangil says.

 Having a good mattress that keeps your body properly supported can help, although Stangil warns, “It’s a misconception that you need the stiffest mattress out there. The bed is supposed to dip a little bit; your body is not flat.” He recommends a “medium to firm mattress.”

 If you have an extra $12,000 to spend, you can follow in the footsteps of Oprah Winfrey, the British royal family, Luciano Pavarotti and Russian President Vladimir Putin and purchase the Hypnos mattress, a 2,000-coil temple to sleep, made of cashmere, silk and lamb’s wool. We bet any position would somehow be comfy on that bed.—K.W.

Enter, Sandman
Ten easy tips for getting a good night’s sleep

Cut out caffeine

No Big Gulps before bedtime. Instead, try caffeine-free, low-sugar drinks, or herbal tea. Leave at least five to six hours between your last cup of coffee and bedtime.

No napping

If you’re napping during the day, but having trouble sleeping at night, you should forego the nap to get a full night’s worth of deep, restorative sleep.

Exercise early

A workout can get your body revved up, and although you may feel relaxed, even tired, post-workout, you should leave plenty of time—three to four hours—between exercise and bedtime for your body temperature to drop and for your muscles to unwind.

Make a list

If you’re lying in bed worrying about all the things you need to do the next day, try writing down a to-do list before bed. Getting in the habit of writing down your list before sleeping should help clear your mind and allow you to drift off to a night of worry-free sleep.

Stick to happy hour

Drinking into the wee hours of the morning can disrupt your sleep. Call it quits a few hours before retiring since alcohol can disturb your normal sleep pattern and cause you to wake more frequently during the night.

Don’t pig out

Light snacking is O.K., but big meals before bedtime are not. Digesting a late-night dinner is not relaxing for your body, so keep your snacks healthy, and to a minimum.

Clear the clutter

If your bedroom resembles an office or a Radio Shack, now is the time to change. Take anything that could be distracting out of the room, including electronics, work-related papers and pets.

Make it dark

Too much light can keep your body up, so invest in some proper window shades or change the lighting in your bedroom to help you sleep soundly.

Have sex

Ever notice how tired you are after orgasm? The rush of endorphins during orgasm can leave both men and women feeling relaxed and sleepy.

Spruce up

Treat yourself to soft, high thread-count sheets, supportive pillows, or even a new mattress if you need to. Going to bed each night should be something you look forward to.—K.W.

A: Hold your horses, Howard. Redesigning history is not part of City Council’s charter, and when one plaque departs another arrives—or so it would appear. Ace took a turn up Court Square way and, after dodging jackhammers and cement rollers, found himself in front of Number Nothing, Court Square. There, a plaque most certainly marks the spot of the former slave block. The marker is shiny and stamped with the City of Charlottesville’s imprint. Tourists in search of a little self-edification can even read a short paragraph of history explaining how the slave trade played out at Court Square, along with the typo: “Most free blacks became so before 1807 when it was illegal in Virginia to emancipated slaves without moving them out of the state.”

 This naturally led Ace to wonder whether you, dear misinformed Howard, meant to ask, where did the old slave plaque go? The one that said simply, “Site of slave block” and matched similar plaques at Court Square (and elsewhere) that say things like “Site of 1st public library” or “Site of storehouse”? These plaques (Ace learned after a trip to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society) were part of our fair city’s bicentennial birthday blowout in 1962. As part of that illustrious birthday, the Civic League of Charlottesville planned a party for the people that included (along with a parade and—if we know our little ’burg at all—a little historic re-creation) an historic marker rampage. Civic leaguers ran around town slapping historic markers on every brick wall known to corsets, including at least four at Court Square alone.

 But finding out when and why the 1962 slave plaque was replaced with a new one proved to be the real mystery. Tom Hughson, the contractor working on Court Square, knew nothing of it. Neither did City Engineer Tony Edwards, who was handed the reins to the project when City Planner Satyendra Huja retired at the end of June. Neither did the people working inside Number Nothing. Neither did the Historical Society. Neither did Maurice Jones, director of communications for the City, although he promised to continue looking into the matter. O.K., kids, who’s in charge, here? Phew!

 But this is to be continued. Ace promises to get to the bottom of this matter before October, the magic month when the $2.3 million Court Square project wraps itself up with a big bow and quill-penned love letter to itself. But before that can happen Ace requests one thing: Will bureaucracy please stand up and take a bow?