Sleep medicine deals with the causes, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. A sleep medicine physician treats problems such as sleep apnea and snoring, insomnia and narcolepsy. Sleep apnea is when a person actually stops breathing for a few seconds during sleep, and is usually accompanied by loud snoring. Narcolepsy is a disorder of the central nervous system, and is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, and a tendency to sleep at inappropriate times, even if the person gets adequate nighttime sleep. Also considered sleep disorders are periodic limb movements and restless legs.

Treatment includes overnight study in a sleep center, where technicians observe, monitor, and analyze brain activity, respiratory function, muscle function and other variables that help diagnose complex sleep disorders. Sometimes a physician may fit a patient may with a device to measure a person's activity, their environmental temperature, light levels and mood state, all recorded by a computer the size of wrist watch. This allows the physician to get objective, accurate data on the patient's daily life, and help to assess sleep problems.

Doctor density varies by specialty and location. Indiana has 30 practicing sleep medicine doctors. Broken out by city, sleep medicine doctor density in Anderson is 1, in Aurora is 1, in Avon is 1, in Beech Grove is 3, in Carmel is 5, in Chesterton is 1, in Danville is 2, in Elkhart is 1, in Evansville is 2, in Fort Wayne is 2, in Gary is 1, in Goshen is 1, in Greenwood is 3, in Indianapolis is 9, in Jasper is 1, in La Porte is 1, in Lafayette is 3, in Logansport is 1, in Marion is 1, in Merrillville is 2, in Michigan City is 1, in Muncie is 1, in Munster is 2, in Princeton is 1, in Seymour is 1, in Valparaiso is 1, and in Wabash is 1.

Indiana’s population is 6,271,973, and most of the state’s population is located in the north, near the Lake Michigan shoreline, and is part of the greater metro Chicago area. Indiana became a state in 1816, and boasts many historical sites and covered bridges, numerous state parks and forests, hunting and fishing, and a variety of golf courses. Centrally located Indianapolis is home to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hosting the world-famous 500-mile auto race every year. This capital and largest city of Indiana also hosts a Civil War museum, a planetarium, and the Indiana Historical Society, among many other attractions.

According to 2005 Census estimates, Indiana has a population of 6,271,973. Of this population, 1,566,280 are under the age of 18 and 774,303 are at or above the age of 65.