Sleep medicine Sleep Clinic

We spend roughly 30% of our lives sleeping. Sleep medicine can be beneficial when sleep is disturbed or when it doesn’t properly fulfil its role of giving us rest. Excessive fatigue, insomnia, constantly waking up at night, sleep apnoea, snoring, abnormal behaviour at night, jet lag and restless limb syndrome are some of the many conditions we deal with every day.

The Sleep Clinic is certified by the Swiss Society of Sleep Research, Sleep Medicine and Chronobiology. The clinic is part of the pulmonology department at the Valais Hospital. It offers a full range of tests and treatments for all sleep conditions. Multidisciplinary work is a key part of what the centre does. We work in partnership with the neurology, ENT, psychiatric and maxillofacial surgery departments. Aside from these main partners, we also work regularly with sleep clinics at the Geneva University Hospitals, the Lausanne University Hospital and Inselspital.

At the Sion and Martigny sites, we offer sleep consultations and sleepwalking tests. More thorough tests are carried out at our sleep laboratory, which moved from Crans-Montana to Sion in 2020. The four sleeping rooms are located in a quiet area within the Sion hospital, providing optimal conditions for quality sleep.

Services and treatments

  • Sleep breathing disorders, including apnoeas, hypoventilation and snoring 

    • Positive airway pressure equipment, such as CPAPs, breathing machines and non-invasive bilevel ventilation
    • Mandibular advancement splints
    • ENT surgery, following assessment using drug-induced sleep endoscopy to locate the obstruction
    • Positional therapy
    • Bucco-linguo-masticatory muscle strengthening programme
    • Maxillofacial surgery for specific cases

    Insomnia

    • Cognitive behavioural therapy
    • Non-pharmacological treatments, such as sleep hygiene
    • Treatment with medication
    • Stress reduction and anxiety treatment in partnership with the ambulatory psychiatry department

    Circadian rhythm disorders

    • Chronotherapy with behavioural advice, light therapy and coaching using a sleep log. This may or not be accompanied by melatonin treatment.

    Parasomnia, central hypersomnia, and sleep-related involuntary movements

    • Treatment of underlying factors
    • Behavioural treatment
    • Treatment with medication if required
    • Monitoring using a sleep log

  • Services available

    • Sleep consultations
    • Multidisciplinary sleep consultations with a pulmonologist, neurologist and psychiatrist
    • Polysomnography for adults and children More details on the test
    • Polysomnography with continuous positive airway pressure or non-invasive ventilation
    • Polysomnography with full EEG using the 10-20 system
    • Multiple Sleep Latency Tests (MSLT) More details on the test
    • Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT) More details on the test
    • 48-hour hypersomnia evaluation More details on the test
    • Ambulatory respiratory polygraphs More details on the test
    • Overnight oximetry
    • Actigraphy
    • Profile of melatonin in saliva
    • ENT consultation with focus on snoring
    • Drug-induced sleep endoscopy
    • Individual or group stress reduction and anxiety treatment, including psychotherapy, self-hypnosis and meditation

  • Diseases treated

    • Sleep breathing disorders, including apnoeas, hypoventilation and snoring
    • Central hypersomnia, including narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia
    • Insomnia
    • Circadian rhythm disorders
    • Parasomnia
    • Sleep-related involuntary movements

Consultations

You must request treatment if you wish to undergo sleep tests. Each request is checked by the head of the sleep clinic to ensure we offer the best treatment possible.
We can arrange consultations in English, French, German and Romansh.

Please send your request to:
Secrétariat de pneumologie
Hôpital de Sion
chvr.pneumologie(at)hopitalvs.ch

Tel.: +41 (0)27 603 46 78

ConsultationsLocationOpening hours

Sleep consultations 

Sion Hospital (Floor C) and Martigny Hospital (1st floor)

Every day

Multi-disciplinary consultations for sleep disorders 

Sion Hospital (Floor C)

Monday 13:30 to 17:00

Sleep laboratory tests, such as polysomnography

Sion Hospital (Floor C)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights
From 19:15 to 07:30 or 08:00

Ambulatory polygraphs

Sion Hospital (Floor C) and Martigny Hospital (1st floor)

Every day

The ENT consultation focused on treatment for snoring takes place on Monday from 13:30 to 17:00 at Martigny Hospital. Appointments can be made with the ENT department secretary by telephone on +41 (0)27 604 44 51 or by email addressed to: chvr.consult.orl(at)hopitalvs.ch.

Stress reduction and anxiety treatment is provided by the ambulatory psychiatry department. A number of techniques are used for this, and treatment may not involve psychotherapy. For example, drop-in groups for self-hypnosis and meditation are available once a fortnight throughout the year. Sessions can be arranged with the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Department secretaries:

  • Sierre: +41 (0)27 603 84 70
  • Sion: +41 (0)27 603 84 40
  • Martigny: +41 (0)27 603 63 00
  • Monthey: +41 (0)27 604 73 90

Related

disciplines