Dr Oliver Bernath

Professional statement

Dr Oliver Bernath is a highly esteemed consultant neurologist and sleep physician who specialises in the full spectrum of sleep disorders, including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnoea, sleepwalking, nightmares, restless legs, narcolepsy, as well as neurological conditions with a special interest in epilepsy.

After his medical training and doctoral thesis in muscle physiology as a Studientstiftung scholar (German Merit Foundation) in Germany, he completed his neurology residency and served as chief resident at the University of Chicago, which is the cradle of sleep medicine. Here, in 1953, Dr. Aserinsky and Prof. Kleitman discovered REM sleep. He worked, amongst others, with Prof. Van Cauter, a pioneer in the study of hormone circadian rhythms.

Following that, Dr Bernath trained in clinical neurophysiology and epilepsy at the University of California, San Francisco, under Professor Aminoff, one of the pioneers of clinical neurophysiology. Thereafter, he trained in sleep medicine at the UCSF/Stanford Medical Centres, where he met Professor William Dement, who developed polysomnography, currently still the gold standard sleep test.

During his fellowships, he studied with Prof. Guilleminault, an early discoverer of obstructive sleep apnoea and with Prof. Dement. After his training, Dr Bernath ran the Northern California Sleep Disorders Center at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco before returning to the UK. Dr Bernath is recognised as a neurologist and is registered with the General Medical Council on the specialist register. He holds certifications in sleep medicine by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (previously American Board of Sleep Medicine), the European Sleep Research Society, as well as the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as Neurologist and with the added qualification in clinical neurophysiology, and the American Board of Clinical Neurophysiology.