Sleep medicine - Medical specialists

Be it healthy sleep or disrupted sleep - sleep medicine deals with both. But of course, sleep physicians are primarily concerned with disorders. Because regular sleep deprivation over a longer period of time can have serious psychological and physical consequences. Diseases and disorders that affect sleep include sleep apnea, sleepwalking, problems sleeping through the night and restless legs syndrome.

Especially when sleep disorders or sleep-wake disorder affect the organism, the specialists step in. If the sleep disorders persist for a prolonged period of time, an examination is often carried out in a sleep laboratory. Often patients then spend some time in a special room in a clinic, where they are monitored electronically throughout the night. This polysomnography is recorded and evaluated: Brain waves, heart rate, eye movements, muscle activity, oxygen saturation - there are many factors which, at the end of an extensive examination, provide an overall picture to get to the bottom of the corresponding sleep disorder. Patients with narcolepsy also consult sleep specialists.

Recommended specialists

Sleep medicine - Further information

Sleep medicine is a special medical discipline that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders of all kinds.

Experts in sleep medicine come from these specialties:

  • Internal medicine
  • Pediatrics
  • Neurology
  • Otorhinolaryngology
  • Psychiatry
  • Psychotherapy

In addition, they have completed an 18-month specialist training course in sleep medicine. During this further training, the doctors are concerned with the effects of sleep on the body and psyche, the question of what sleep actually is and how it works, what sleep disorders there are and how they manifest themselves. The treatment of these sleep disorders is also part of the advanced training in sleep medicine.

Spectrum of sleep medicine

Diagnostics includes anamnesis, i.e. a detailed conversation with the patient about his or her complaints and medical history. However, the sleep laboratory provides more detailed information. Here the patient sleeps while connected to various diagnostic devices that monitor his breathing, movements and other parameters. In this way, sleep medicine experts can form their own opinion and draw conclusions about the cause and extent of the illness.

The treatment spectrum in sleep medicine is very broad and depends on the cause of the disorders. Therefore sleep physicians often work closely with experts from other disciplines. Common therapies include somnoplasty, home respiration and surgical interventions.

Medical spectrum

Therapies

Diseases

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