Rockefeller University Hospital opens new Sleep Research Center

Apr 20 2009

A good night's sleep is good for your health, but the details have long been sketchy.

Now, after decades of study into the relationship between sleep patterns and health in general, science is pointing to the often overlooked role of sleep in particular diseases - from cancer to diabetes to Parkinson's. But most researchers don't think about it and most laboratories are not equipped to study it.

At The Rockefeller University Hospital, that's changing. The hospital has established a new Sleep Research Center equipped to conduct clinical investigations of normal sleep patterns as well as sleep disorders that occur

in conjunction with disease states under investigation at the hospital. The center, which consists of two patient rooms and a technician's room, was opened last fall with start-up equipment provided by partners at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The Sleep Research Center is equipped with electroencephalography to study brain waves, instruments to examine muscle tone and movements, eye movements and respiratory and cardiac function. Video cameras and microphones also record the subjects' activities in sleep. Subjects' rooms are also outfitted with state-of-the-art mattresses and bedding to obviate the factor of discomfort from study results.

"Many of our investigators, especially those who are already conducting clinical studies, can benefit from the opportunities the new center affords," says Barbara O'Sullivan, medical director of The Rockefeller University Hospital. "So many disorders, including obesity and diabetes, cancer, immune disorders, Parkinson's disease, addictive diseases, menopause and stress, can be affected by or can themselves affect sleeping patterns in a number of ways."

The center's first study aims to characterize the prevalence and type of sleep disorders seen in survivors of breast cancer. "Sleep problems are very common with cancer patients and survivors. We hope to identify clusters of poor sleepers with different etiologies, for example hot flashes and other endocrine-related symptoms, anxiety related to fear of recurrence, and apnea, to name a few," says Steven D. Passik, a clinical psychologist who works with cancer patients and their families at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the principal investigator on the study. Study volunteers, all of whom are between 1 and 10 years post-treatment, spend two nights each under observation by a specialized technician at the Sleep Research Center.

Neil Kavey, a sleep medicine specialist and psychiatrist who directs the Sleep Disorders Center at Columbia University Medical Center and is co-principal investigator of the study, provided the equipment for the laboratory. "Sleep occupies a third of our lives," says Kavey. "Yet we've barely scratched the surface yet on the relationships between sleep and various disease processes and states."

"The Sleep Research Center is an exciting undertaking," says O'Sullivan. "The Rockefeller University Hospital, which is devoted entirely to clinical research, is in a unique position to conduct the type of research this center makes possible. This marks the beginning of an entirely new avenue of study for Rockefeller scientists, who have always been at the forefront of clinical initiatives."