A $100,000 donation of state-of-the-art equipment to Stanford Center for Human Sleep Research promises to open the doors to new research possibilities and make the center a quieter place to rest.

Traditionally, sleep research is noisy business. Ink pens on the recording devices rattle, paper rolls hum, and study subjects are wired up like a switchboard while attempting to sleep. New digitally based equipment donated by Respironics, a company specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea, does away with all that.

The equipment's greatest advantage, according to Clete Kushida, MD, PhD, director of the center and assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the School of Medicine, is the ability to monitor subjects remotely. This enables researchers to leave the lab during trials. Study subjects also may stay home while being monitored, rather than having to sleep in the lab. "All it takes is a phone line and access to the Web," Kushida said. "With this new system, I can log on from almost anywhere to check on a subject."

Research coordinator Chia-Yu Cordell demonstrates new equipment in the Stanford Center for Human Sleep Research. Covering the wall in the background is some of the older equipment, much of which has been replaced by new digital units like the one she's shown holding.

Gary Kaye, director of the sleep management group for Respironics, said his company donated the equipment to help ensure Stanford's leadership in sleep research. "Obviously, Stanford is a major player," he said.

Kushida is confident that the new equipment will be more appealing to patients. Traditional analog recording devices required a wall of space and cables running from the recording lab to the patient's room. The digital equipment, on the other hand, is the size of a small radio. Brightly colored icons make it easy to see where wires need to be attached on the subject's body and the touch screen allows the patient or technician to switch recording modes easily.

Reducing a bank of recording devices to a tiny box was no easy feat, Kaye said. The equipment has been in development for more than four years. "The analog processing requires very sophisticated machines," he said. "To get to the digital stage is a huge step."

Today, Kushida said, the new equipment seems to surpass the old in both accuracy and speed of data collection. "Hand-scoring of paper reports could take us several hours," he said. "During recording sessions, we might have equipment failures, breaks in the record -- a variety of problems could arise. All of the studies were on papers inches thick. Now everything can be held on a CD."

According to Kushida, the increased reliability of the new equipment, as well as its ease of use and remote monitoring capabilities, has allowed the research center to expand the number of studies it undertakes each year. "We've basically doubled our capacity," he said.