ABSTRACT
Why was this handbook written? Since the discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep a little over 50 years ago, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of scientific investigations exploring sleep and its disorders. This expanding body of literature enables a clinician to learn the best practices in the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders, provided he or she knows how to access this literature. The Handbook of Sleep Disorderswas written with the idea of providing an easy and quick way for a clinician to retrieve this information. The first edition of the Handbook of Sleep Disorders (1), edited by my colleague and friend, Michael J. Thorpy, M.D., of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York, was published in 1990. It consisted of 817 pages, and, at the time it was released, it was arguably the most complete reference on sleep disorders available. However, close to two decades have passed since the original handbook was published, and new clinical and basic research discoveries prompted the writing of this second edition.
