A double bed with a blue blanket and white sheets takes up most of the space, while a lamp casts dim light from a corner and a bushy plant fills another. The floor is carpeted, the walls white and bare. Everything looks normal, until you notice the camera.

Mounted high on a wall opposite the bed, the camera is one of the few signs that this room is used for something other than sleeping. It's also a place for people who can't sleep.

This repurposed room, as well as the one next door, are the newest additions to Valley Health's neurodiagnostic sleep labs. Already in use at Winchester Medical Center and Shenandoah Memorial Hospital, doctors at Warren Memorial will now be able to diagnose patients suffering from sleep disorders.

"I know there are quite a few people in the area, even employees at the hospital, who have gone to Winchester to have a sleep study," said Kim Foster, director of cardiopulmonary services at Warren Memorial. "We're trying to keep as many people in the commmunity as possible, but we're also trying to relieve the backlog in other systems."
Patients will be tested in the new lab, but their family physicians will make arrangements for treatment, Foster said.

The two rooms are designed to let polysomnographers-the technicians running the study-closely monitor patients while they sleep. Down the hallway in a smaller room, the techs can watch two computers that keep tabs on patients, recording every snore or body adjustment.

The camera provides doctors with a visual into the room, letting them observe whether the patient is lying on their left or right side, belly or back. To gather non-visual data like breath rate and heartbeat, the patients are attached to an electronic belt, a microphone to pick up snoring, and an airflow sensor in the nose.

Foster said nerves or discomfort are also taken into account. When patients schedule a stay in the lab, which lasts roughly eight hours overnight, they get a cover letter inviting them to make themselves at home.

"If you have a blanket or a pillow you prefer, or anything to make you feel as close to home as possible, bring it," Foster said. "You can wear your favorite pajamas."
Lab technicians can also answer any questions once a patient is at the hospital.

The first night the sleep lab housed patients was last Friday, but Kathleen Crettier, director of education for Valley Health, volunteered for a system test run earlier in the week.

"This is a new system, and it is new to the techs, but they were wonderful to work with," Crettier said, adding that the only problems were minor and not tech-related, such as adjusting the fans in the rooms. "It was more a comfort thing."

The sleep studies are done to help pinpoint what, exactly, is disrupting a patient's sleep. According to a sleep lab brochure, with the two most common disorders, patients briefly stop breathing (sleep apnea), or tense their muscles (nocturnal myoclonus).

Foster said patients can be treated a variety of ways, including prescription machines or surgery. Diagnosing patients in Warren County, she added, has been years in the making. Now that it is available, patients won't have to travel in search of a good night's sleep.

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