The Institute's staff includes sleep doctors who participated in a specialized sleep medicine fellowship in the U.S. and Canada, and day and night technicians who participated in organized training for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in adults and children.
The new Institute for Sleep, which was opened in May of 2021, is the first of its kind in Israel and includes: sleep clinics, sleep labs, and research laboratories, whose clinical and research staff work together under one roof.
The center's activities include:
- Sleep medicine clinics for adults
- Sleep medicine clinics for children (ages 0-18 years)
- Sleep lab - in which nightly sleep examinations, according to diagnosis, are performed, including daytime sleepiness evaluations
- Ambulatory sleep examinations - regarding obstructive sleep apnea - for adults only
- Ambulatory sleep examinations - actigraphy - for monitoring sleep/wake patterns - for adults and children
- Adjustment of breathing support devices (CPAP)
The staff works closely with the EEG clinics (adult and pediatric) and the neurology division of the hospital.
Who do we treat?
Adults:
- Difficulty falling asleep, nocturnal awakenings, and early awakening
- Parasomnias and excessive movement in sleep (REM sleep behavior disorder, cataplexy, sleepwalking, night terrors)
- Periodic limb movement disorder
- Restless legs syndrome
- Snoring, heavy breathing, and obstructive sleep apnea
- Daytime sleepiness and unrefreshing sleep
- Psychomotor vigilance testing for drivers
Children:
- Difficulty falling asleep, nocturnal awakenings
- Parasomnias (sleepwalking, night terrors, sleep-related rhythmic movement disorder)
- Periodic limb movement disorder
- Restless legs syndrome
- Snoring, heavy breathing, and sleep-disordered breathing
- Daytime sleepiness and confusional arousals
Inspecting and customizing equipment
The sleep lab evaluation:
Polysomnography will be performed in accordance with the diagnosis and guidance of a sleep medicine specialist in the clinic. Evaluations take place at night. When the patient arrives at the sleep lab, s/he meets the laboratory's night technician. During the evaluation, the patient is connected to numerous sensors used for monitoring various parameters of sleep, breathing, and movement. In most cases the patient falls asleep spontaneously. The patient is filmed throughout the entire night. The evaluation ends the following morning. A friend or relative may accompany you to the sleep evaluation.
Evaluation of Sleep/Wake Patterns (Actigraphy):
This examination is performed in accordance with the diagnosis and guidance of the sleep medicine specialist in the clinic. The patient receives a "watch" which s/he wears for a week or two (according to the directions of the sleep doctor). The results of this analysis can help diagnose sleep phase disorders, quantify the difficulty of falling asleep, objectively quantify the duration of nocturnal awakenings, and more.
Ambulatory Examination for Suspected Obstructive Sleep Apnea
In adults, a large proportion of patients can have an ambulatory sleep evaluation. The decision about the type of sleep evaluation (in the lab or at home) is determined by the sleep doctor in the sleep clinic. If the decision is made to perform an ambulatory evaluation, the patient will receive a sleep breathing monitor to take home for one night.
Adjustment of CPAP device
Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) - Treatment of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. It is a device that delivers air at positive pressure (a kind of bellows). The air from the device is transmitted to the patient through a customized mask (usually no coverage of the mouth is required). This adjustment is made by a device given to the patient to take home after being trained at the Center for Sleep Medicine. Support is provided by the center's staff throughout the entire adjustment process.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia - CBT
A workshop for the treatment of insomnia by cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is held at the Sleep Institute. The professional guidelines of sleep organizations recommend the treatment as first-line therapy for insomnia. Coping strategies to help the participants fall asleep and reduce nocturnal awakenings, as well as to help them relax mentally and physically, will be taught in the workshop, which includes five weekly meetings over a period of five weeks. The workshop is suitable for anyone who has been examined by a sleep doctor and had other sleep disorders ruled out.
Research in sleep medicine
The scientific research in the center focusing on brain activity during sleep is in collaboration and under supervision of
Prof. Yuval Nir from Tel Aviv University.
Ongoing projects include work on sleep and memory in healthy individuals and in different stages of cognitive impairments due to neurodegeneration, sleep abnormalities in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, epileptic activities during sleep, as well as studies on sleep and psychiatry.
