Sleep Disorders Program - Brigham And Women's Hospital

Main Category: Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia
Article Date: 17 Aug 2008 - 1:00 PST

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The Sleep Disorders Program in the Division of Sleep Medicine is devoted to research aimed at understanding sleep disorders and improving therapy for sleep disorders as well as providing clinical services to care for patients afflicted by these disorders.

Our faculty and staff continue to demonstrate their leadership role in basic and clinical research. Research areas include the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea and other disorders of sleep, periodic limb movement disorders of sleep, insomnia, the interactions between the circadian system and diseases such as asthma and cardiovascular disease and intermittent hypoxia. The Program is actively engaged in product research and development with industry to improve the technology for diagnosing and treating patients with obstructive sleep apnea, central apnea associated with heart failure, and insomnia. There are approximately 10 current faculty performing research in areas including mechanistic physiology in healthy humans, clinical research, epidemiology, animal models and mathematical models. These approaches are used to understand the pathophysiology and therapy for obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia, and to understand the relationship of sleep with other disorders, including periodic limb movements of sleep, hypertension, other cardiovascular diseases and cardiovascular biomarkers, seizures and 'nocturnal' asthma. There is also research on the effect of aging and gender on sleep disorders, and the influence of sleep deprivation on metabolic function.

Our Clinical Research Fellowship is accreditted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Mission Statement

As part of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Partners HealthCare System, the Sleep Disorders Program is dedicated to serving the needs of the community. We are committed to develop the highest quality health care for patients and their families, to expand the boundaries of medicine through research and to train the next generation of health care professionals and future leaders in sleep disorders medicine. We are also committed to continuing education in the medical community. The Sleep Disorders Program will take a leadership role in the development of a full range of cost-effective, patient-centered services for evaluating, diagnosing, and managing sleep disorders.

http://www.brighamandwomens.org