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Newsroom
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Inside Sunnybrook’s Sleep Medicine Clinic and Laboratory
March 13, 2026
Sleep plays an essential part in our overall physical and mental wellbeing. Getting enough quality sleep can improve cognitive processes like memory and decision making, reduce stress and improve your mood, strengthen the immune system, repair the body’s tissues and even reduce the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Circadian rhythms are physical, mental and behavourial changes that follow a 24-hour cycle. Every cell in the body has its own circadian rhythm, which is responsible for how the cell functions.
“If you throw off your circadian rhythm you can actually do damage to your cells and to the functioning of your cells and potentially damage to the functioning of your organs,” explains Dr. Mark Boulos
, a Stroke and Sleep Neurologist in the Hurvitz Brain Science Program and Medical Lead of the Sunnybrook Sleep Laboratory. “Circadian rhythms go beyond sleep and the brain. When you don’t get enough sleep, you increase your risk of a variety of health conditions, impacting your overall wellbeing.”
Because of the important role sleep has in our daily living, it’s important to take steps to makes sure you get adequate sleep quality and quantity. Habits like maintaining a regular sleep routine or avoiding caffeine and electronics before bed are simple ways you can improve your sleep. For those living with sleep disorders like insomnia, medical testing or interventions from sleep clinics may be necessary.
Sunnybrook’s Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre is home to the Sleep Laboratory, Sleep Medicine Clinic and Ontario’s first Circadian Sleep Centre, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to 24-hour testing of sleep/wake cycles that allowing for specialists to more precisely observe and diagnose circadian rhythm problems.
The Sleep Lab at Sunnybrook has a multidisciplinary team, with specialists from neurology, respirology, psychiatry, anesthesia and family medicine. Collaboration among specialities helps provide holistic care for patients, setting Sunnybrook’s clinic apart from traditional sleep testing facilities.
Currently operating six overnight beds and consistent daytime testing for less common conditions like narcolepsy, the Sleep Lab has completed over 1,600 different tests during its first year operating out of the Hurvitz Centre. The teams in the Sleep Lab are working toward expanding the cases they evaluate through testing in the Circadian Sleep Centre.
The Circadian Sleep Centre will offer state-of-the-art sleep testing through fully customizable rooms, enabling clinicians to control the light, sound and temperature of a room, creating a supportive environment for patients with damaged circadian rhythms.
“The specialized centre will allow us to control all the senses for days at a time, helping patients retrain their circadian rhythm in a safe environment,” Adds Dr. Boulos, who was also recently appointed as a Fellow Member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a global network of sleep medicine professionals dedicated to leading innovation in sleep and circadian health.
Quality sleep is a foundation for overall health and wellbeing, and the experts and technology in Sunnybrook’s Sleep Medicine Clinic and Sleep Laboratory are advancing diagnostics and personalized treatments for chronic sleep and circadian conditions to help patients reclaim rest and improve their quality of life.