Sleep Consultants, Inc.

FORT WORTH, Texas - 13 November 2007

How is your sleep? For 25 years, Dr. John Burk and associates have helped people from Tarrant and surrounding counties answer this question and treat their sleep disorders. This fall marks the first quarter-century of the sleep medicine practice now known as Sleep Consultants, Inc. While the most common disorder they encounter is obstructive sleep apnea, they also diagnose and treat all of the other 80-plus sleep and circadian rhythm problems, including simple snoring, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking, insomnia, shift-work sleep disorder, other occupational sleep problems, narcolepsy, and REM-sleep behavior disorder (acting out dreams).

"My husband snores loud enough to wake the dead." "My wife’s constant tossing and turning keeps me awake all night." We’ve all heard stories about how spouses interfere with each other’s sleep. Sleep Consultants now performs sleep studies for married couples, with husband and wife in the same bed at the same time.. A conventional, individual sleep study tells nothing about how that person’s sleep problem may be affecting their spouse, nor about how their spouse’s sleep problems may be affecting them. Sleep Consultants developed the capability to measure sleep disturbance in one individual as a direct response to snoring, movements, or other sleep problems of their bed partner. Sleep problems often lead to couples sleeping apart when they would otherwise prefer to sleep together. The new capability provides a more realistic and relevant approach to assessing sleep disorders in couples with sleep complaints.

In addition to this initiative, Sleep Consultants, Inc. helped Cook Children’s Medical Center set up a sleep laboratory and pediatric sleep medical services over the last year. Prior to this, children under age 6 had to go to Dallas for sleep-related medical problems. (Sleep Consultants sees children age 6 and up.) Also in the last couple years, residents from John Peter Smith Hospital have undergone sleep medicine rotations at Sleep Consultants as part of their training. Recognition and treatment of sleep disorders in Tarrant County’s underserved populations represents a huge opportunity and challenge. Sleep Consultants continues longstanding education and research associations with the University of North Texas Health Science Center and the University of Texas at Arlington. The group has presented research findings at regional, national, and international scientific meetings.

Dr. Burk started this sleep medicine practice as a young Fort Worth pulmonologist in 1982. He recognized early that sleep apnea was a huge yet unrecognized medical problem. In 1984, he was joined by Ed Lucas, Ph.D., and they formed the core of the practice until Dr. Lucas retired in 2005. Dr. Lucas was among the first board-certified sleep medicine specialists ever. Among many other accomplishments, Drs. Burk, Lucas and collaborators invented an automated system to treat sleep apnea with the lowest necessary pressure instead of constant high pressure. Dr. Don Watenpaugh became Director in 2005 after Dr.. Lucas retired. From 1982 to 1995, the practice was based in All Saints Hospital on 8^th Avenue. In 1996 they moved to their present location in the downtown medical district: the 6-bed sleep laboratory operates at 909 8^th Avenue, and the main clinical offices are conveniently nearby at 1521 Cooper Street. The practice has been continuously accredited as a comprehensive sleep disorder center by the certifying sleep medicine organizations since 1985, and they were the only accredited center in Tarrant County until 2006. Sleep Consultants, Inc. sees patients age 6 and up by referral. Sleep Consultants has always been and continues to be closely associated with Texas Pulmonary and Critical Care Consultants, which Dr. Burk started in 1977.

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