Adult Behavioral Sleep Medicine

• The primary goal of this minor rotation is to teach interns how to evaluate, diagnose, and treat sleep disorders using evidence-based evaluations and therapies.

• Learn how to work within a multidisciplinary sleep medicine team

• Obtain knowledge of a wide variety of sleep disorders and apply that knowledge to differentially diagnosing and treating patients

• Proficiency in cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia  

• To learn about basic sleep promoting mechanisms

• To learn about the range of sleep disorders encountered in sleep medicine practice

• To learn how to prepare comprehensive assessment reports for a range of patients with various types of sleep disorders.

• To learn how to administer cognitive behavioral insomnia therapy

• To learn other behavioral sleep medicine techniques including imagery rehearsal for nightmares, graded exposure treatment of CPAP related claustrophobia, methods for aiding patients discontinue sleep medications, and treatment strategies for circadian rhythm sleep/wake disorders.

• Interns are required to attend one day a week (8am-5pm) at the Sleep Medicine clinic. Sleep Medicine clinics are held on Mondays at the main campus of National Jewish Health and on Wednesdays at the Highlands Ranch location. On a typical day, 2-4 new patient evaluations are completed and 8-10 follow-up patients are seen.

• Interns will see patients to evaluate and diagnose patient’s sleep complaints. Interns are responsible writing the diagnostic report for new patient evaluations.

• Interns will also be involved in the follow-up treatment of patients, which is brief and lasts between 1-6 sessions. Follow-up treatment is conducted using empirically-based treatments, which commonly involves cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia.

If the intern has an interest and time available, there is opportunity to get involved in insomnia research.

A wide variety of patients are seen at the Adult Sleep Medicine clinic, including a range of sleep disorders, patient demographics, and co-morbid medical and psychiatric conditions. We treat patients with the following sleep disorders: circadian rhythm disorders, excessive sleepiness, insomnia, narcolepsy, obstructive sleep apnea, parasomnias, periodic limb movement disorder, and restless leg syndrome. We also see patients from a wide range of backgrounds, including socioeconomic, race/ethnicity, and education.

Interns will be provided didactic materials (selected readings) to help them learn about basic sleep mechanisms, the range of sleep disorders likely to be encountered on the rotation and methods of sleep disorder diagnosis - one-on-one discussion to aid them in their case conceptualization and treatment planning abilities - and ample opportunity performing assessment interviews and therapeutic interventions with various patient types.