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General News: Center for Sleep Medicine Opens
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| The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the sleep center. |
November 19, 2008
Do you have trouble getting a restful night’s sleep? Do you wake up in the morning feeling tired? Are you snoring loudly throughout the night? If so, you may be able to find some relief at the new Center for Sleep Medicine at St. Luke’s Cornwall hospital’s Cornwall campus.
On Tuesday, hospital president Alan Atzrott cut the ceremonial ribbon to officially open the four-unit sleep center and hailed the addition of another facility in Cornwall. “We’re becoming a comprehensive center in the community,” Atzrott said.
The new sleep units are set up like hotel rooms with a queen-size bed, DVD player and a flat screen television. Patients come into the rooms where they are attached to electrodes that monitor respiration, heart functions, muscular movements and oxygen levels. That information is sent to a control room where technicians analyze the results and determine the causes of sleep disorder. A camera in each room also allows the technicians to study the patient’s movements during sleep.
Dr. Robert Lee, a certified sleep specialist who is overseeing the center, explained that sleep apnea, or snoring, is often caused by a closing of the airways. Once diagnosed, the condition can be treated with a device that brings more air pressure to open the airways. He also said that dental appliances or surgery can be used to enhance the flow of oxygen.
Dr. Lee said that the field of sleep medicine was only created ten years ago as doctors recognized that sleep plays an important role in overall health. People who wake up with big headaches every morning or who have trouble staying awake during the day, even after a full eight hours of sleep, may find their symptoms are alleviated with sleep therapies.
“If you see a little kid sleeping so soundly and as a adult you realize that you are no where near there, we’re here to get you back to where you were as a child,” Dr. Lee said.
Night terrors and sleep walking are some of the 80 sleep disorder that specialists have identified. Dr. Lee noted, however, that the center is studies patterns of behaviors while a patient is sleeping but is not geared to the insomniac who cannot fall asleep.
Patients who think they may be suffering from a sleep disorder should consult their primary physician to discuss whether a night at the new sleep center could help them.
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