Kings County Hospital Center (KCHC) threw open wide the doors of its new Sleep Disorders Diagnostic Center (SDDC), in an effort to help shut the door on sleeplessness in Brooklyn. A small ribbon cutting reception, with an open house tour followed immediately after.
Located in the hospital’s C Building, the SDDC features six state-of-the-art suites. With names like the “Gentle Breeze” and “Dreamcatcher” suites, healthy tranquility is clearly the center’s focus, placing study participants in a luxurious, private hotel room-like setting for their diagnostic sleep study.
Each room has its own king and queen-sized bed and is appointed with amenities such as a flat screen television, walls adorned with modern ironwork sculptures, and private restroom. Pediatric suites have a parent sleeper and video games for their young occupants.
Anyone from ages two to 92 can suffer from any one of the more than 84 different types of identified sleep disorders. An estimated 49% of Adult Americans suffer from some type of clinically significant sleep disorder (1996 Gallop Survey). Lack of adequate sleep can cause accidents on the job and on the road; affect your relationships, health, and mental prowess.
According to a recent study published in “Pediatrics,” the journal of American Academy of Pediatrics, children, ages nine to 12, who don’t get at least nine hours of sleep are more likely to gain weight than those who get the recommended amount. Researchers for the study believe that insufficient sleep could be interfering with children’s metabolism, eating habits, and exercise patterns. If the lack of sleep becomes chronic, it may increase the risk of obesity in extreme cases.
Sleep disorders are serious and may result in serious cardiac issues and/or death if left untreated. Multiple successful treatments do exist, including pharmacotherapy, oral appliances, surgical intervention, behavioral therapy, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP).
The SDDC staff will perform several tests that will be analyzed by the center’s medical director, who is Board-Certified in sleep medicine, to make a clinical diagnosis that is forwarded to your physician for follow-up.
“This new center has the chance to improve the lives of many people for whom a good night’s sleep has become a pipe dream. We are excited with being able to offer our services in this setting to the deserving people of this community, and hope that people will take advantage of this resource. Adequate sleep is just as important as proper nutrition, exercise and it is easier so if you feel that you are unable sleep please see your medical doctor for a referral,” says Joanna Portee, MPA RRT-NPS, associate director of the Sleep Service Center.
Portee advises that if you think a lack of sleep is affecting you or your child, see your family doctor and explain your or your child’s symptoms in order to receive a referral, and then call the Sleep Disorders Diagnostic Center at 718-245-5567 or 718-245-5668 to schedule a sleep diagnosis.
