Sleep Electives MSIV Students and Electives

Sleep Medicine is an emerging subspecialty that deals with variety of sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea (in children and adults), insomnia (e.g. limit setting and psychophysiological insomnia), restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy and neurologic disorders that either affect sleep (e.g. seizure disorders, cerebrovascular accidents and neuromuscular disorders) or are diagnosed during sleep (e.g. REM sleep behavior disorder, central apnea syndromes). This subspecialty is unique in that it encompasses knowledge and techniques fundamental to many other specialties (i.e. Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Family Medicine). A student elective in Sleep Medicine is primarily offered at the Memorial Hermann Hospital Sleep Center where individual experience in reading and interpreting polysomnograms, conducting positive airway titrations for sleep disordered breathing, multiple sleep latency testing and seizure and REM sleep behavior montages is gained under the direct supervision of the sleep faculty. Incorporated into the elective would be an outpatient experience in evaluating patients referred for a variety of sleep disorders. You will learn how to take a detailed sleep history and physical and how to manage many of sleep disorders. Clinics occur twice a week: Wednesday afternoons at the UT professional building, and Thursday mornings at the Quentin Mease Community Hospital (which houses the Harris Health Systems Sleep Center and outpatient clinics). As part of the Sleep Fellowship we conduct weekly core sleep lectures on Tuesday and a monthly city wide conference, with an outside speaker and attended by many of the related specialties. At the end of the elective you would have gained invaluable experience and knowledge that would hopefully contribute to your future career.