Sleep Medicine
The Sleep Medicine section is focused on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with a variety of sleep disorders, ranging from sleep-related breathing disorders to parasomnias, hypersomnia, and insomnia. The Sleep Medicine section of the Department of Neurology is an integral part of the wider multi-disciplinary and multi-departmental sleep medicine program involving the departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Family and Community Medicine, Psychiatry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Otolaryngology, and Neuroscience.
Clinical and Education
The Sleep Medicine clinical program was founded at the VA Medical Center in 1985 by the Neurology and Pulmonary sections. The Pediatric Sleep Medicine clinical program had been founded separately at Children's Health in Dallas. The two programs joined with the private practice of Sleep Medicine Associates of Texas to establish the Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program in 2002 under the administration of the Department of Psychiatry. Subsequently, the Clinical Center for Sleep and Breathing Disorders at William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital was founded in 2007. Sleep Medicine Associates of Texas dropped from the training sites in 2008 followed by the VA Medical Center in 2009. The Sleep Medicine Fellowship was accredited by ACGME in 2014 with only the University Hospital and Children’s Health as training centers. The VA Medical Center was re-added to the Fellowship training sites in 2016. The Sleep Center at Parkland Hospital founded in 2020, joined Fellowship training sites in 2021.
These four academic centers currently provide medical care and clinical sleep laboratory services to more than 17,000 patients annually. The clinical centers have welcomed medical students, residents, and fellows from multiple disciplines – training over 30 sleep medicine fellows in an ACGME-accredited training program, all of whom passed their board certification exams on their first attempt.
Research
In 2018 the Sleep and Circadian Rhythms T32 Training Program was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This research training grant is based in the Department of Neuroscience and dedicated to developing translational research uniting the basic science research of the departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry with the clinical programs of sleep medicine.
Conditions Treated
The Sleep Medicine Section is committed to providing comprehensive, compassionate, and high-quality care to our patients. The most common conditions we treat include:
- Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Central Sleep Apnea
- Hypoventilation of Neuromuscular Diseases
- Insomnia of medical, neurologic, pharmacologic, and psychiatric etiologies
- Restless Leg Syndrome
- Narcolepsy type 1 and 2
- Hypersomnia of medical, neurologic, pharmacologic, and psychiatric etiologies
- Circadian Rhythm Disorders, including delayed and advanced sleep-wake phase disorders, shift work disorder, non-24-hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder, irregular sleep-wake rhythm disorder, and jet lag sleep disorder
- Parasomnias, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, and mixed
Primary and Collaborative Services
The Sleep Medicine section at UT Southwestern and affiliated medical centers provides a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic services, including:
- Diagnostic and therapeutic polysomnography
- Home sleep testing
- Actigraphy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia
- Clinical history and physical examinations
- Blood and urine testing
- Pulmonary function testing
- Arterial blood gases
- Radiological testing
- Initiation and monitoring of positive airway pressure, oxygen, and mandibular advancement device treatments.
- Collaborative Services
We collaborate with several other Neurology sections, including Neuromuscular Disease, Movement, and Memory Disorders to provide optimal care for our shared patients, as well as Divisions of Internal Medicine, including Hematology and Oncology for intravenous iron infusion therapy, Endocrinology for management of obesity and thyroid disorders, and the Hypertension and Pulmonary Hypertension Clinics in the management of the complications of sleep-related breathing disorders. We also work closely with Otolaryngology to provide surgical options including the use of "Inspire" or hypoglossal nerve stimulation.
Clinical Faculty
- Gregory S Carter, M.D., Ph.D. (Section Head)
- Safia Khan, M.D. (Family and Community Medicine joint appointment)
- Ryan Hays, M.D. (Medical Director, Parkland Sleep Center)
- Joy Bernardo Ramos, APN
Pulmonary/CC Providers
- Won Lee, M.D. (Medical Director, Clinical Center for Sleep and Breathing Disorders)
- Katie Tran, M.D.
- Abha Patel, D.O. (Medical Director, VA Sleep Center)
- Thor Pan, M.D.
- Tang Kuang, M.D., Ph.D.
- Shan Luong, M.D
- Lisa Munn, APN
- Mark Dula, PA-C
Psychiatry Providers
Pediatric Pulmonary Providers
- Syed Kamal Naqvi, M.D. (Medical Director, Children’s Sleep Disorders Center)
- Michelle Caraballo, M.D.
- Elisa Basora-Rovira, M.D.
- Anna Wani, M.D. (Family and Community Medicine joint appointment)
- Tanya Martinez Fernandez, M.D. (Program Director, Pediatric Pulmonology Fellowship)
Otolaryngology Provider
Research Labs (Sleep and Circadian Rhythms T32 Training Program)
Takahashi Lab
The long-term goals of the Takahashi laboratory are to understand the molecular and genetic basis of circadian rhythms in mammals and to use forward genetic approaches in the mouse as a tool for gene discovery for complex behavior.
Green Lab
The Green lab studies the molecular mechanisms by which the circadian clock controls rhythmic processes within the cell, with a focus on post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms.
Greene Lab
The Greene lab studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms controlling the behavioral state, with a focus on sleep homeostasis and function. Towards this end, we employ behavioral and electrophysiological phenotyping of sleep/wake states to analyze the genetic, cellular and circuit-signaling pathways responsible for their generation and control.