From snoring to sleep apnea, the Providence Medical Group Sleep Health clinic makes treating your sleep disorder easy. Our clinic provides a sleep clinic and durable medical equipment together at one site. We’ll guide you to a healthier, more refreshing sleep.
Hospital-based Sleep Lab
Our sleep lab is located on the 2nd floor of Providence Pavilion for Women and Children and has sweeping views Port Gardner Bay and the Olympic Mountains. It is the only hospital-based sleep lab in Snohomish County accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Our sleep health specialists are highly trained in testing and evaluating sleep disorders and keep us on the leading edge of sleep medicine treatment.
How We Diagnose a Sleep Disorder
We can diagnose nearly 250 known sleep disorders. The first step is a night in our sleep lab. Before you drift off, we attach painless monitors to your body. While you sleep, a sleep specialist observes various characteristics of your sleep – heart rhythm, brain waves and muscle activity, body position, breathing and oxygen levels. We use this data to formulate your diagnosis. In some cases, we might need further testing.
Personalized Sleep Treatment Plan
If your sleep study confirms a sleep disorder, our experienced staff tailors a treatment plan just for you. If you need positive airway pressure therapy (CPAP), respiratory therapists provide follow-up care to help with equipment and ongoing treatment.
Our support group, called AWAKE (Alert, Well and Keeping Energetic) meets every month to offer patients, family members and friends education and support.
Common Sleep Disorders
- Insomnia, a frustrating inability to fall or stay asleep, keeps 30% of adults wide awake. It can be caused by a combination of psychological, biological, medical, lifestyle and environmental factors.
- Sleep/wake disturbances, such as those associated with jet lag or work shift changes, are caused by jolts to the body’s “biological clock.” These issues may be relatively short-term, but they certainly affect how you feel.
- Snoring is generally regarded as harmless. But, it shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s not just a threat to domestic harmony. It could be a symptom of a more serious disorder known as obstructive sleep apnea.
- Sleep apnea is when a person repeatedly stops breathing (for more than 10 seconds) during sleep, depriving the heart, brain and other vital organs of oxygen. It causes fatigue and daytime sleepiness.
- Restless leg syndrome (RLS) describes irresistible leg movements. It can be accompanied by a creeping sensation deep in the legs, and arms can also be affected. Periodic leg movements in sleep (PLMS) is a similar condition with repetitive leg movements lasting as long as 5 seconds every 20 to 40 seconds. It can disrupt sleep and cause drowsiness during the day.
- Sleepwalking and night terrors share common symptoms, including the fear of waking up somewhere other than your own bed. Sufferers can appear confused or disoriented and may walk around or hide things. They probably won’t remember what they did when they wake up.
- Narcolepsy is uncommon, but can be dangerous. It involves daytime sleep attacks, loss of muscle tone and hallucinations while falling asleep.
- REM behavioral disorder is characterized by vigorous, often dangerous, sleep behaviors accompanied by vivid dreaming. With normal sleep, we become paralyzed so we don’t act out our dreams. With REM behavior disorder, however, the paralysis is missing and patients may physically, often violently, act out their dreams.