Sleep Medicine Booms In The United States

SPOKANE, WA - DECEMBER 13: (L-R) Director of the center, Gregory Belenky, M.D., Hans Van Dongen, Ph.D., and Bryan Vila, Ph.D. stand in the common living area at Washington State University Spokane's Sleep and Performance Research Center December 13, 2006 in Spokane, Washington. The laboratory, established through $4.5 million in congressional funding, is one of four sleep research centers in the United States that concentrates solely on lab research combined with human field tests to see how sleep loss/deprivation affects work performance. The data obtained from studies being developed at the center is expected to break new ground in the science of sleep research and the growing boom of sleep medicine in the nation. (Photo by Jeff T. Green/Getty Images)