Sleep disorder clinic

Sunnybrook is home to a state-of-the-art research, teaching and clinical sleep laboratory.  

There are important interactions between sleep and cognition, mood disorders, arthritis, pain, recovery from strokes, and many other medical conditions. The lack of quality sleep can drastically alter a person’s health.

Our laboratory, an integrated neurological sleep site for Toronto, is unique in combining brain science based clinical, teaching and research sleep abilities in one institution.  Based within the Clinical Neurophysiology program at Sunnybrook, our team of staff includes technologists, neurologists, respirologists, and research psychologists.

This is the first sleep clinic in Toronto to have a focus on neurological aspects of sleep medicine. Our centre is currently receiving referrals from across Ontario and beyond.

Sleep has been shown to be important for healing and recovery, pain management, cognition and mental capacity, alertness, mood, improved sense of well-being, quality of life and optimized function.  It also has known effects on women’s health.  For example, during pregnancy sleep is severely altered.

Our lab studies neurological and other sleep disorders with novel tools for assessing sleep habits in day-to-day life using portable ambulatory monitors and tools for assessing alertness.  We provide medical trainee teaching and research currently not being done elsewhere.

Patients can be referred for sleep assessment by their family doctor upon experiencing any of the following symptoms:  sleepiness and/or other features of narcolepsy, loud snoring or stopping breathing in sleep – a symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome – a common, unusual feeling in the legs at night that is relieved briefly by movement, and abnormal sleep behaviours.

Our team reviews individual cases before scheduling any sleep tests or studies. 

The Clinical Neurophysiology unit also incorporates:

• Electromyography (EMG) and nerve conduction studies (NCS): tests that assess the health of the nerves and muscles.
• Electroencephalography (EEG): a test to detect abnormalities in the electrical activity of the brain.
• Evoked Potentials (EP): uses stimuli such as a light to assess the brain’s response.  These tests are used clinically to assess MS patients and other neurological conditions.