India's First Sleep Lab

FOUR years ago, a modest beginning was made at this experimental facility in New Delhi—a beginning that should turn into a full-scale war against sleep disorders. To exorcise the demons haunting the nights of a growing number of victims, Dr J.C. Suri's laboratory employs, primarily, a sleep machine. Essentially, this machine monitors the quality of various stages of a patient's sleep, together with indicators such as blood pressure and brain and muscle activity that have a bearing on sleep. Measurements taken, the patient is put on medication or therapy or both.

But Suri's clinic alone won't win the war. The problem of sleep disorders runs deep among our urban populations, and the situation calls for urgent steps on a war footing from the policy-makers. Says he: "Being the only lab in the country we are flooded with patients. A patient has to wait for at least three months for his or her turn. Besides, there are no trained sleep experts or sleep technicians in the lab. I have to make do with my little experience and generous help from members of my department. There is a dire need to produce sleep medicine experts and sleep technicians before we can set up more such labs."