The UAB Sleep-Wake Disorders Center is part of the University of Alabama Hospital and serves within the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine. The Center opened in February 1985 as a one-bed unit, and since then has expanded to a 7 bed-state-of-the facility unit in September 1990. The physical layout includes 35 rooms. The Center occupies 5721 square feet in the Center for Psychiatric Medicine, and includes seven bedrooms (each containing a private bathroom), a technologist monitoring room, an office for our CPAP respiratory therapist professionals, two exam rooms to interview and examine patients, a receptionist’s office, and patient waiting room. There is also a conference room with educational equipment including a TV, video cassette recorder, and office space for support personnel. Major equipment in the Center include seven Sandman polysomnography units, as well as Nihon Kohden Digital Seizure Monitoring equipment, seven Nellcor N-200 oximeters, seven linear strip charts, seven BiPAP S/D or S/D-T and seven Burle camera video and audio systems. We also have portable pulse oximetry, actigraph, and esophageal pH monitoring capabilities.

There are three Sleep Professionals who are Diplomates of the American Board of Sleep Medicine on staff at the Center as well as 7 technical staff. The Center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Last year, the Center evaluated more than 1300 patients and performed in excess of 1000 overnight sleep studies including nocturnal polysomnography, Multiple Sleep Latency Tests, and Maintenance of Wakefulness Tests, and Sleep Staging studies.