Sleep Center

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A sleep study is considered a medical procedure and is covered by most insurance companies. To have a sleep study, you need a referral from your doctor. Don't have a doctor?

Ongoing difficulty in getting a good night's sleep can lead to poorer health, lower productivity at work, a greater danger on the roads, and problems with family life.

Unfortunately, many sleep disorders go untreated because people think nothing can be done for them - but that's not true.

ECHN's Sleep Disorders Center, located within Manchester Memorial Hospital, performs simple studies that can uncover potentially dangerous sleep problems that, when treated, could significantly improve a person's health and emotional well-being. It is one of only a few centers in the state to be certified by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The ECHN Sleep Disorders Center also has a satellite office, with four additional beds, at 153 Main Street in Manchester. This satellite office allows for sleep studies to be scheduled more quickly.

What is a sleep problem?

Symptoms of a sleep problem include:

The cause of sleep problems can be discovered through a sleep study, which is conducted overnight in a quiet wing of the hospital or the satellite office. Patients settle in a private, homelike room, where they can read or watch TV until they fall asleep.

While they sleep, monitors measure their brain wave activity, breathing, heart rhythm, eye movements, chest movements, arm and leg movements, and oxygen level. In the morning, the patient goes home or to work, and the data collected are analyzed. Read an article that describes how our sleep studies are done.

The ECHN Sleep Disorders Center can diagnose problems such as:

• Obstructive sleep apnea, in which a person's breathing passages become temporarily blocked during sleep
• Central sleep apnea, a neurological condition in which the brain "forgets" to instruct the body to breathe
• Periodic leg movements, a syndrome in which a person's legs, feet, or toes will move during sleep, causing repeated awakening
• Restless leg syndrome, which causes uncomfortable sensations in a person's legs that can interfere with the ability to fall asleep or stay asleep
• Narcolepsy, in which a person has sudden sleep attacks throughout the day and night that sometimes cannot be controlled
• Insomnia, a chronic (ongoing) inability to fall asleep or to remain asleep throughout the night