A-STEP Overview

The goal of the A-STEP Introductory course is to provide a solid foundation for which to build competencies in all areas of sleep medicine. Students are not expected to be experts by the end of the last day, instead, they will have the knowledge and rudimentary skills to support their initiation as a Sleep Technologist Trainee.

Course materials include interactive PowerPoint presentations, partner activities, group discussions, interactive demonstrations, and didactic sessions. Assessment will be performed via daily multiple-choice quizzes and performance evaluations. Students will receive a textbook, a Focus Sleep School Workbook, the AASM Scoring manual, and various other digital resources and links to guide their independent studies. Virtual students will receive a package with these items prior to the first scheduled synchronous session. Also, every enrolled student will have access to AASM's interscorer reliability program to practice sleep staging and event scoring.

Program director’s office hours are open to all students for questions and material clarification.

The program begins right after registration with the pre-course asynchronous modules. Module topics include an overview of being a sleep technologist, electrode placement, monitoring various sensors, introductions to sleep staging and scoring, and many other topics.

If you register for our new hybrid schedule, your next step will be attending five synchronous scheduled sessions. These live sessions will intensively review the job duties of a sleep tech and the fundamental education of all things sleep medicine.

If you register for the fully on-site course, this course will be scheduled for seven 8-hour days. This time will be spent intensively reviewing the job duties of a sleep tech and the fundamental education of all things sleep medicine.

Virtual students will attend two days on-site the week following their virtual sessions. These days cover all the hands-on learning. We'll be in an actual sleep lab using working equipment to put fundamentals to practice.

The final afternoon of either course is dedicated to taking the A-STEP final exam. At this point, students will demonstrate an understanding of PSG annotations and analysis, the sleep study setup process, and associated medical conditions. This exam is provided by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to assess competencies of a Sleep Tech Trainee. Students will have three attempts to pass. After passing the A-STEP final exam, students will immediately have access to purchase and complete the post-course AASM self-study modules.