What is sleep medicine?
Sleep medicine is a medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of sleep
disturbances and related conditions. More than 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disturbances. Dental sleep medicine focuses on the management of sleep-related breathing disorders through the use of oral appliances or upper airway surgery.What is a sleep medicine specialist and what do they do?
Sleep medicine specialists, or sleep specialists, use various diagnostic and research tools to evaluate a patient’s wake-sleep cycle, such as polysomnography, in which sleep patterns are monitored through electrodes. This test, which is used to diagnose a variety of sleep disorders, is usually conducted in a sleep center or laboratory and records breathing patterns, brain waves, heart rate and eye movement. Sleep specialists work with physicians, psychologists, and dentists to help treat patients.
A sleep medicine specialist has graduated from medical school and specialized in Internal Medicine or other subspecialty. The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN), and the corresponding boards of Internal Medicine, of Pediatrics, and of Otolaryngology, collectively administer the Sleep Medicine Certification exam for their members. What conditions does a sleep medicine specialist treat?
Common sleep disturbances include dyssomnias including insomnia (an inability to fall or stay sleep) and hypersomnia (excessive sleeping), sleep apnea (when breathing briefly stops during the night), parasomnias (bedwetting, sleepwalking, nightmares), narcolepsy (falling asleep during the day at inappropriate times). Other conditions include:
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- Breathing-related sleep disorder – A spectrum of breathing anomalies ranging from snoring to upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), frank obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS)
- Circadian rhythm sleep disorder – A disorder in which the internal clock that controls the brain (suprachiasmatic nucleus) is out of synch, causing sleep loss, excessive sleepiness, insomnia, depression, stressed relationships, poor work performance, and more
- Delayed sleep phase syndrome – A circadian rhythm sleep disorder in which the individual's internal body clock does not follow the typical “sleep at night, rise in the morning” pattern. Typically called night owls, these sleeping hours are not by choice
- Kleine-Levin syndrome – A rare condition in which a patient sleeps without waking for up to 20 hours per day for a few days to a few weeks. Seventy percent of these patients are adolescent males
- Obstructive sleep apnea – A condition in which pauses in breathing occur during sleep because the airway has become narrowed, blocked, or floppy
- REM behavior disease – A parasomnia in which a patient acts out his or her dreams (kicking, screaming, punching, grabbing, or jumping out of bed)
- Restless legs – Overwhelming need to move the legs, caused by uncomfortable sensations in the leg muscles