NATCHEZ — Kenneth Drane knows how dangerous a sleep disorder can be.

His brother — who had sleep apnea that disturbed his routine sleep cycle — died after falling asleep at the wheel.

“A lot of accidents like that are associated with sleep deprivation, and that is the reason this is my calling,” he said.

Drane, an internal medicine physician with a specialty in sleep disorders, opened a new office in Natchez last month. Though he has admitting privileges at Natchez Community Hospital, he has an independent practice. His wife Cindy, a family nurse practitioner, works with him.

Sleep disorders can have ripple effects throughout a patient’s life, Drane said, from a general feeling of fatigue to an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and even diabetes.

But one person’s sleep disorder can actually affect the sleep comfort of their bed partners as well. Sleep apnea can often manifest in loud snoring or otherwise labored breathing which makes it difficult for others in the room to sleep.

“When I am treating a sleep apnea patient, it is not only the client who leaves happy, but the spouse as well,” Drane said.

Drane hasn’t always been a medical professional, and his road to becoming a sleep specialist is, by his own account, “long and winding.”

The Kingston-area native graduated from South Natchez High School and studied engineering at the University of Mississippi.

Following college, he worked for a biomedical engineering company in Memphis that had a contract with St. Jude Hospital.

That contact sparked his initial interest in the medical field, Drane said, though it would still be years before he followed through with it.

After quitting his job in Memphis, Drane returned to his hometown, where he taught industrial electronics at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and worked as an engineer at Mississippi River Corporation.

He eventually decided to pursue his interest in medicine, and started nursing school at Alcorn State University in 2001.

He became a nurse in 2004, working as a computer engineer during the week and nursing on the weekends. He started studies to become a nurse anesthetist, but the field seemed to narrow.

“Intubating somebody every day is just doing the same thing,” he said. “The whole body was my interest, and I realized, ‘You are going to grow old, so you might as well grow old doing something you love.’”

He attended the Ross University School of Medicine in Dominica, and did clinicals at the then-Louisiana State University Leonard J. Chalbert Medical Center.

Drane then headed to the University of Louisville for an internal medicine internship.

“That’s where I sort of realized my calling for sleep medicine,” he said. “I had myself diagnosed with a sleep apnea as an intern there, because I was working 80 hours a week and what little sleep you have you really need.”

Drane followed his intership with a yearlong sleep fellowship at LSU— Shreveport.

Following his own experience with sleep apnea and that of his family, Drane said he wants to give each patient the individual treatment they need.

“For a lot of people, just getting a good night’s sleep makes all the difference,” he said. “We want to work with them. We don’t just diagnose the patient and walk away.”

For example, many patients end up not using their sleep apnea masks even though they require several hours’ use every week to be effective, Drane said.

“If the patient is not wearing it, something is wrong,” he said.

When patients come into Drane’s clinic in the Tracetown shopping center, they have to fill out a multi-page questionnaire that helps narrow what might be causing their sleep problem, including involvement in shift work, stress and medicine.

He also sees pediatric sleep patients.

“Each patient is different and needs a custom approach. There are so many things that go bump in the night, and that is why you need a personal touch,” Drane said.

In addition to practicing in Natchez four days a week, Drane also runs a sleep clinic at the Overton Veterans’ Affairs hospital in Shreveport.

He and  Cindy have two daughters, Lily, 12, and Cate, 10.

He is the son of Bobbye Jean Hall Drane and the late Hayward Drane.