Washington, D.C. is home to 10 practicing sleep medicine doctors who have offices in 1 county and 5 zip codes, including zip codes 20307, 20037, 20010, 20007, and 20422.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Washington, D.C. has a population of 550,521, which gives it a specialist to resident ratio of 1 sleep medicine doctor for every 55,052 residents.

Description

Sleep medicine deals with the causes, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. A sleep medicine physician treats problems such as sleep apnea and snoring, insomnia and narcolepsy. Sleep apnea is when a person actually stops breathing for a few seconds during sleep, and is usually accompanied by loud snoring. Narcolepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system, and is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, and a tendency to sleep at inappropriate times, even if the person gets adequate nighttime sleep. Also considered sleep disorders are periodic limb movements and restless legs.

Treatment includes overnight study in a sleep center, where technicians observe, monitor, and analyze brain activity, respiratory function, muscle function and other variables that help diagnose complex sleep disorders. Sometimes a physician may fit a patient may with a device to measure a person's activity, their environmental temperature, light levels and mood state, all recorded by a computer the size of wrist watch. This allows the physician to get objective, accurate data on the patient's daily life, and help to assess sleep problems.