Physicians in all areas of medicine encounter patients who complain of disturbed sleep. The purpose of this course, the 13th in its series, is to provide clinicians with the knowledge needed to recognize and treat major sleep disorders likely to be encountered in their clinical practice.

The course will emphasize a practical based approach to sleep medicine across multiple specialties including primary care medicine, family practice, psychiatry, neurology, geriatrics and clinical psychology. The course will focus on assessment and evaluation of excessive sleepiness, sleep apnea and narcolepsy, evaluation strategies and management of chronic insomnia disorder, and parasomnias and abnormal behaviors at night. The course will conclude with a discussion of the mechanism by which poor sleep contributes to cognitive decline and dementia.

Attendees will acquire skills needed in the recognition, evaluation and management of the major sleep disorders they are likely to encounter during routine clinical practice. A major goal of the course is to provide practitioners with current updates regarding evaluation strategies and treatment recommendations. Each presentation of the primary sleep disorder will consist of discussion of etiology, and pharmacological and behavioral treatment options.

Target Audience

This course will target clinicians and health care providers who regularly encounter patients with sleep complaints. The course will be particularly useful to primary care physicians, internists, family physicians, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, pediatricians, geriatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and any other health care providers who are likely to encounter patients with sleep disturbances. Trainees in the primary care disciplines, family medicine, neurology, psychiatry and sleep medicine, would also find the course helpful.