Tom Flattery RRT RPSGT
Dr. Kilkenny's texts are the only books needed to pass the polysomnograhy boards.

Steve Grenard RRT
Fundamentals of Polysomnography by Dr. Kilkenny is a must for the library of anyone in the sleep community

Book Description
The FIRST and ONLY Training Guides dedicated to teaching the art of Polysomnography. The Complete Training Guide for Mastering the BRPT Exam. A useful Introductory Guide for Physicains entering the Sleep Disorders field.

From the Publisher
Dr. Kilkenny has developed an extensive training program dedicated to the advancement of Sleep Disorders education. He has spent the last several years developing the Fundamentals Text and Workbook. This is the only text entirely dedicated as a training manual for polysomnography and sleep disorders. To his credit Dr. Kilkenny was able to capture all aspects of a comprehensive training program in sleep disorders and polysomnography and to record the information in one source.

About the Author
Dr. Kilkenny is a Board Certified Sleep Specialist. He is the director of one of the largest sleep centers in the Northeast. Dr. Kilkenny's resume is filled with research papers and journal articles on all aspects of sleep diorders and sleep medicine. He is on the editorial board of Sleep Review, a leading trade journal in the field. In his center he has personally taught many technicians and physicians the subtle art of polysomnography and sleep medicine.

Excerpted from Fundamentals of Polysomnography and Sleep Disorders by Dr. Thomas M. Kilkenny. Copyright © 2002. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction Humans spend a significant amount of their lives asleep. If a person lived to the age of 70 years he would spend about 200,000 hours sleeping. Yet despite these striking numbers, not much was known about sleep or sleep disorders until the 1950’s. It was then that Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, a physiologist at the University of Chicago, first began to perform the first true experimentation into the nature of sleep. From that point on a great deal of knowledge has been gained about sleep and sleep disorders. J. Allen Hobson, a noted author on sleep, stated "more has been learned about sleep in the last 60 years than in the previous 6000." The US Congress recently commissioned an investigation of the prevalence of sleep disorders and sleep deprivation in our society. The National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research report (1993) found that approximately 40 million Americans are chronically ill with sleep disorders, and an additional 20-30 million experience intermittent sleep related problems. This supports a 1991 Gallup Poll found that 65 million Americans reported trouble sleeping. Lack of sleep and sleep related illnesses account for billions of dollars yearly in accidents and lost wages. Unfortunately, the knowledge of sleep that has already been gained has not filtered down to primary care physicians who have contact with the majority of patients with these disorders. The preponderance of patients with sleeping disorders still go undiagnosed. Dr. Terry Young demonstrated that approximately 82% of men and 92% of women with obstructive sleep apnea have yet to be diagnosed. It is for this reason alone that sleep medicine is such a growing field. Over the next several years the field of sleep medicine will continue to grow. Unfortunately there has not been a great push in the sleep field to ensure that quality polysomnographers are well trained and that quality sleep tests are being performed. In many instances the people performing sleep tests are poorly trained and fly by the seat of their pants. After hand selecting and hand training several technicians for my center I sought for a reference that could be utilized by the technicians as a training guide. I undertook this project because I could not find a complete and friendly reference on the background of sleep disorders and the techniques of sleep testing that can be used as a training guide for polysomnographers and physicians new to the field. This text is not meant to replace the major works such as Krieger, Roth and Dement but rather this text has been designed to assist the new polysomnographer as well as experienced technicians in understanding the basics of sleep and sleep disorders as a training guide. Physicians will also benefit from this text as it places much emphasis on the actual hands on sleep testing that is often left out of a sleep training program. Part I of the book reviews the basics of normal human sleep. Part II discusses the most common sleep disorders. Part III places special emphasis on the specific techniques of sleep testing and related issues. Part IV of the text is designed as a quick reference guide to the sleep community.