Course information

This online course provides an overview of the importance of sleep in health and disease, the mechanisms underlying the regulation of normal sleep and wakefulness, the impact of inadequate and poor sleep, and an overview of common sleep disorders. Text, interactive activities and video clips are used as instructional methods. The course begins with information concerning the physiologic underpinnings of normal sleep and factors regulating the patterning of sleep and wakefulness. This basic physiology is followed by a discussion of the importance of sleep on memory, learning and performance, and the impact of the consequences of insufficient sleep on health and disease risk. Finally, there is a brief overview of common sleep disorders and their treatment.

OVERALL LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understand the benefits of obtaining an optimum amount of sleep.
• Learn the adverse impact of insufficient sleep on performance and disease risk.
• Understand how sleep and wakefulness are regulated.
• Acquire knowledge related to the normal circadian rhythm of sleep and how circadian rhythm misalignment (e.g., with shift work) affects sleep and wakefulness.
• Learn the clinical manifestations of some common sleep disorders.

Dr. Quan is a graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He did residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, and fellowships in Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and University of Arizona respectively. He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the University of Arizona where he was Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Director of the Sleep Disorders Center, and is Visiting Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine; a member of the advisory board for the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute); and chair of the Sleep Medicine examination committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Quan also has served as the president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (1999-2000) and been on the board of directors of the American Board of Sleep Medicine (1990-1996). Most recently, he was a member of the Steering Committee that developed the new sleep scoring manual for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and is currently the Interim Editor of the Sleep and Health Education Program at Harvard Medical School�s Division of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Quan’s current research activities focus on the epidemiology of sleep and sleep disorders, particularly sleep disordered breathing.