Sleep Disorders Center
A sleep disorders center is a medical facility providing clinical diagnostic services and treatment to patients who present with symptoms or conditions that suggest the presence of a sleep disorder. Improved diagnostic techniques and recent advances in sleep research, including polygraphics recording of sleep stages, as well as breathing, cardiac and muscle activity during sleep, have resulted in better understanding of the pathophysiology and the management of major sleep disorders.
Insomnia is a symptom. It may be caused by a variety of physiological, psychological and environmental factors. Among these are "restless legs" syndrome, nocturnal myoclonus, sleep apnea and gastrointestinal disease. Anxiety and stress, either situational or chronic, are also frequently implicated. The use of depressants, stimulants, shift work, time zone changes or general discomfort may also be causative.
Parasomnias (events around sleep) are common in children but are also seen in adults. These disorders are related to partial wakening from slow wave sleep. Included in this category are: somnabulism (sleep walking), enureses (bed wetting), night terror, bruxism and head banging.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS)
This can range in severity from drowsiness during quiet situations to drastic impairment of daytime functioning, often leading to work or driving accidents. Reduced alertness may be temporary such as in severe respiratory allergy or prolonged when due to sleep apnea and narcolepsy. Other underlying medical conditions such as encephalitis, drug abuse or metabolic disease may be causative.
Apnea of Infancy
The center provides comprehensive evaluation to infants with suspected sleep related disordered breathing.
Loud snoring may be both socially disabling and a symptom of serious sleep apnea. In sleep apnea, patients stop breathing during sleep as often as several hundred times each night. Undiagnosed, sleep apnea may lead to high blood pressure, heart rhythm disturbances and daytime somnolence.
Narcolepsy is not as uncommon as previously believed and often difficult to diagnose. Besides having an irresistible urge to sleep, narcoleptics often suffer from one or more of the following symptoms: Sleep paralysis, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucination. Narcolepsy can be objectively diagnosed at the sleep center, with daytime as well as nighttime testing to document REM at sleep onset (SOREM) which characterizes the sleep of narcoleptics.
About The Sleep Disorders Center
The Sleep Disorders Center is staffed by a board-certified Sleep Physician. Registered Polysomnographic Technologists and Sleep Technicians who are experts in the field of sleep disorders. The Center offers an interdisciplinary approach to sleep problems, including consultation with ENT, neurologists, cardiologist, psychiatrists, and pulmonologist, as needed.
The comprehensive evaluation of each patient includes both physiological and psychological assessment. Overnight polysomnography studies may be performed to evaluate certain sleep disorders. These may be done as complete, in-lab studies or limited home sleep tests (HSTs). After each case is reviewed by the Center staff, the Sleep Physician makes individualized management recommendations. This may include medication, nasal CPAP or BiPAP therapy (for sleep apnea), surgical intervention, supervised drug withdrawal, or counseling and sleep hygiene, depending on the diagnosis.
How To Reach Us
Our fully equipped Sleep Disorders Center provides for private consultations in a comfortable, home like surrounding. For more information about this service, please stop by the Sleep Center or call us. We are conveniently located in Somerset near Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital.
The Sleep Disorders Center
341 Bogle Street, Suite C