Georgetown Sleep Center • Georgetown

Georgetown Sleep Center • Georgetown

By Suzanne Haberman Friday, 09 October 2009

GEORGETOWN — Through years of experience as a board-certified doctor of sleep, internal medicine and pulmonology, Georgetown Sleep Center’s founder, Dr. Jim Curlee, testified that helping people sleep well changes lives.

“It is such a life-changing specialty,” Curlee said.

Curlee opened the center in August 2005 after a 28-year military career. After completing medical school at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, Curlee lived in Georgetown while stationed at Fort Hood’s Darnall Army Community Hospital. During his service, he was instrumental in establishing a sleep medicine center for soldiers and veterans in Temple.

But Curlee saw a need for sleep medicine outside of the military barracks.

“The real vision for this area was to come in and build a really nice, state-of-the-art facility where patients would want to come in a safe environment, in an out-of-the way location, strategically located for other areas,” he said.

Patients go to the Georgetown Sleep Center not necessarily because they recognize that they do not sleep well; they often go because they cannot stay awake during the day, Curlee said. But besides the obvious effect of feeling tired during waking hours, not sleeping well decreases concentration and productivity while increasing depression, irritability and health risks, he said.

“Sleep is a function, not only for restoration, healing and rest, it’s also an active process,” center neurologist C. Keilty Darnall said. “That’s where you submit memories. That’s where learning takes place, so it’s important for all sorts of cognitive issues.”

At the custom-designed and accredited sleep center, Curlee and his team of doctors and technicians help patients obtain normal sleep by conducting detailed studies.

Curlee’s method consists of an on-site physical exam, consultation and a possible overnight stay during which registered technicians chart an individual’s sleep habits and physical functions, including heart rate, respiration, brain waves, eye movement and muscle tension. Patients are also visually and audibly recorded.

“The model of how we do sleep medicine is so comprehensive that we feel this is the last stop for a patient,” Curlee said.

With the information acquired, Curlee and Darnall can diagnose one or more of the approximately 80 known sleep disorders. Some problems can often be identified in one night’s stay.

Doctors analyze the charts and make recommendations to the patient usually within two days or sometimes immediately if the diagnosis reveals a threatening problem. Treating sleep disorders can be as simple as making lifestyle changes or as complex as using medical devices. The company, Georgetown Durable Medical Equipment, which operates at the center, fit patients for the devices on-location. Patients, who are sometimes desperate for change, leave encouraged knowing that the Georgetown Sleep Center can help them achieve normal sleep and an improved waking life.

“We’ve had patients cry just walking out the door from the first time that we see them because they’re so happy that something is going to change in their lives,” Curlee said.