CHAMPAIGN – Are you a night owl with an interest in health care?

If so, you might be interested in a career as a sleep technologist.

This fall, Parkland College is launching a training program for sleep technologists, also called polysomnographic technologists. Instruction starts in mid-September and concludes in late October.

Sleep technologists work in sleep labs and assist with monitoring, testing and diagnosis of patients undergoing sleep studies to determine whether they have a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnea.

Night owls do best in this job, since it requires overnight work – especially at the entry level, says Pam Ryan, manager of Christie Clinic's sleep lab, C U Sleep, and technical director for Parkland's training program.

Ryan has been a registered sleep technologist for 12 years, and one of the things she loves about her work is seeing how various systems of the body work together and the differences in the way those systems work during the night as opp- osed to the daytime, she says.

Some of the tasks sleep technologists do: They work with the patient coming in for a sleep study, explaining the testing progress and connecting the patient to dozens of sensors that measure such functions as brain waves, eye movements, leg movement and muscle tension in the chin, Ryan said.

Sleep technologists also monitor the patients undergoing sleep studies and work with those returning for a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine used to treat sleep apnea, she said.

Many people working as sleep technologists come from other health care fields, but some also have no previous medical experience, said Ryan, a former community educator for Planned Parenthood.

The fall training program at Parkland will be limited to 12 students. Some requirements for admission include a high school diploma, a background check, valid CPR card and TB skin test, Ryan said.

The training course begins Sept. 13 with 15 hours of online study. Students who complete that successfully can move on to 65 hours of classroom and hands-on training that will be held from Oct. 18 to 27.

The Parkland program is designed to provide the basics that students need to go to work in a sleep lab, but graduates of the program can't take the certification exam right away. They need to put in three months of paid work in a sleep lab before they can take the exam, Ryan said.

"You really can't learn this profession without doing it," she adds.

Ryan said the job outlook for sleep technologists is good.

Two risk factors for sleep apnea – obesity and age (over 65) – could drive up demand for sleep studies, given the growing obesity rate in the U.S. and a population swelled by aging baby boomers.

The National Sleep Foundation recently found nearly 20 percent of U.S. adults suffer from daytime sleepiness, some because of self-imposed sleep deprivation and some due to sleep disorders keeping them awake at night.

New sleep technologists can expect to earn $25,000 to $40,000 to start, with those coming to this field from other medical professions such as nursing likely to earn at the higher end of the range, Ryan said.

How about the outlook for family life in a profession requiring people to be away overnight?

Ryan says sleep technologists tend to work three or four long overnight shifts a week, rather than shorter shifts every day, so they're not necessarily away from home every night. Plus, she said, experienced sleep technol- ogists eventually have a chance to move to daytime work.

Want to learn more? Parkland College will conduct a free information session about the sleep technology program at 1 p.m. Aug. 28 at the Parkland Business Training Center, Room J124, at 1315 N. Mattis Ave., C.