Sleep disorders can creep up on people and have drastic results, says Dr. Michael Russo, a sleep specialist and neurologist.

“I have had patients who have driven off the edge of cliffs and ended up in the ocean,” said Russo, who practices in Hilo and Honolulu after a career in Army medicine. “People don’t know that they are not getting enough sleep. They just slowly, slowly degrade in function.”

Even without such dramatic wake-up calls, he said, sleep deprivation takes a heavy toll. Sleep disorders contribute to many diseases, from high blood pressure to kidney failure, but doctors and patients often don’t recognize that sleep is even an issue.

So Russo and Dr. Jamil Sulieman, who is a sleep specialist and pulmonologist, founded the nonprofit Hawaii Sleep and Wellness Foundation. It will be hold its inaugural conference Feb. 9-11 to educate people about sleep disorders and help them get treatment before it’s too late.

The foundation is flying in the nation’s top experts in sleep medicine, from institutions including Harvard, Stanford and the Mayo Clinic. They will tackle problems such as insomnia, narcolepsy, circadian rhythms and sleep apnea, which obstructs breathing.

“High blood pressure, heart attack, irregular heart rhythm, strokes, kidney failure, dementia, even cancer are associated with sleep disorders,” said Sulieman, president of the foundation. “By treating the sleep disorder we reduce some of the risk associated with those problems.”

“Hawaii 2017: Hyper Somnolence,” to be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, will train medical professionals to recognize and handle sleep problems. It is open to lay people as well, and interested patients can attend at the student rate of $25, Russo said. Fees for doctors range up to $330. Physicians can earn up to 14 hours of continuing medical education credits.

Insomnia is the most common sleep complaint. Often, people with anxiety have trouble turning off the lights in their minds when they go to bed, Russo said. The inability to go to sleep or stay asleep contributes to hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

“The problem is that people think insomnia is something they have to live with,” said Sulieman, who heads the Sleep Lab in Kaneohe and directs the Maui Medical Group Sleep Center. “But the truth is there is very effective therapy for treating insomnia and it doesn’t require medication.”

Cognitive behavior therapy and rituals that help people shift gears — such as putting on soft music, taking a hot bath and shutting off electronic stimuli — should be the first line of defense, not sleeping pills, Russo said.

“No TV, no cell phones, don’t check your email just before going to bed,” he said. “Don’t look at your bank account just before going to bed.”

Obstructive sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed. It can lead to high blood pressure and kidney disease, which is especially prevalent in Hawaii. Resolving sleep apnea can sometimes help patients reduce their blood pressure without other intervention, Sulieman said.

“Doctors and even the general community have become pretty good at recognizing that a man who is morbidly obese, who snores and is tired may have sleep apnea,” Sulieman said. “But the truth is many, many more people have this disorder. We are probably treating only about 25 percent of people who have sleep apnea. It involves children, men and women.”

Conference speakers include professor Charles Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School; Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, who directs the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine; and Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Peter C. Gay, immediate past president of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine.

Primary care doctors, internists, dentists, psychiatrists, neurologists and ear-nose-throat specialists all could benefit from an understanding of sleep medicine and tools to recognize sleep disorders, said Russo, vice president of the foundation.

He hopes people don’t greet the idea with “a lot of yawns” and questions like “What is a sleep conference — do I go there and nap?”

“It’s a leap of faith that people care enough to attend,” he said.