REDMOND – With electrodes glued snugly to his forehead, chin and cheeks, Donald Aitken decided he was ready for bed.

The 77-year-old Madras resident said he was tired and doubted he would have trouble sleeping in the nicely made bed in a hotel-style room at the new High Desert Sleep Disorders Center in Redmond.

”I’ve been told that I have some lapses in breathing,” Aitken said of why he was visiting the center Monday night. ”My wife noticed this when I was in a recliner falling asleep.”

His wife of 49 years, Drucilla, wrote a note about the problem for him to take to his regular physician checkup, Aitken said. That note landed Aitken at the sleep center for an initial diagnostic test.

He had a follow-up this week to work out a treatment plan for his sleep apnea – a common sleep disorder in which breathing is briefly interrupted during sleep, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

”Untreated sleep apnea can be a precursor to heart disease and stroke,” said Gail Callison, director of sleep and neurodiagnostics for the High Desert Sleep Disorders Center. ”Most people think that snoring is just an obnoxious noise, but it really does have health consequences.”

The High Desert Sleep Disorders Center, which is owned by Cascade Healthcare Community, recently spent about $570,000 in construction costs to open the new facility in Redmond. The Bend center has grown in patient volume by 12 percent to 15 percent every year since it opened in 1994, Callison said, and it is averaging 670 patient encounters a month.

”We have been six to eight weeks backlogged at the Bend clinic for sleep testing,” she said. ”People with movement disorders or narcolepsy can wait up to three months to be seen.”

The Redmond sleep center, which opened last week, is already booked three weeks in advance for sleep tests.

Demand for sleep testing has increased in recent years, Callison said, because of national and local education on the issue, word of mouth from patients who have been treated, and greater understanding by physicians of the problems sleep disorders can cause.

Along with cardiovascular issues, sleep disorders and sleep deprivation can lead to motor vehicle accidents, poor work performance and even relationship problems.

Disorders can be treated in a variety of ways. These include lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and quitting smoking, or use of special pillows or devices that blow a constant stream of air into the patient’s airway to keep it open, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

”There has been a lot of public awareness in the last five years on the impact of sleep disorders,” Callison said.

The Bend center has six sleep rooms and has been running sleep tests seven days a week for some time. Callison said Cascade Healthcare considered expanding the facility in Bend, but through patient surveys, administrators realized the need for a satellite clinic in Redmond. About 28 percent of sleep patients in Central Oregon are from the Redmond, Madras and Sisters areas.

Jake Thompson is one of those patients. The 33-year-old is a firefighter for the Redmond Fire Department and said he is relieved to know he can have his upcoming sleep test for a possible sleep disorder in Redmond, closer to home.

”I’ve been doing it for years and now it’s catching up to me,” Thompson said. ”I hold my breath and I slowly let it out. I guess it’s annoying; that’s what my wife tells me.”

The new Redmond sleep center has four sleep rooms where patients spend the night hooked up to a variety of electrodes and movement monitors that are linked to a computer. The computer tracks every breath and every eye, jaw and body movement throughout the night.

”We monitor the different stages of sleep and the respiratory events,” said Kristie Merrill, a sleep technician at the new center.

So far, the Redmond center is only doing sleep studies. Callison said the goal is to hire a physician for the center by the first quarter of 2007 to conduct consultations, which are still taking place in Bend for the Redmond center. Physician referrals are required for sleep studies, and most are covered by Medicare and insurance companies, according to the center’s Web site.

If patients have trouble sleeping while hooked up to the equipment and being monitored by a video camera, Merrill and fellow sleep technician Jennifer Riste can give them a sleeping pill, and the effects of the medication are not damaging to the study. It’s most important, Riste said, that the patients sleep when they visit the lab so physicians can diagnose the problem.

Thompson, who has a consultation scheduled for early November, said he is not sure what is causing his irregular breathing patterns during sleep. But, he said, he knows he is more tired now than he used to be.

”I don’t know if I’m tired because I have this and I’m waking up and not knowing it,” he said. ”Or if it’s because I’m working 60 hours a week and I have two young boys.”

Types of sleep disorders

* Snoring: Snoring is caused by a partial collapse in the sleeper’s airway when throat muscles relax during sleep. The reduced size of the airway causes the sleeper to work much harder to breathe.

* Sleep apnea: Some people experience repetitive pauses in breathing during sleep, a condition known as sleep apnea. The pauses are caused by a complete collapse of the airway when the person inhales. It can lead to heart complications and may become life-threatening.

* Narcolepsy: This condition causes people to fall asleep inappropriately and uncontrollably at any time of the day. Symptoms may include muscle weakness, vivid dreamlike experiences and feelings of being paralyzed when falling asleep.