Dr. Lebby grew up in Southern California living a healthy outdoor lifestyle.  He attended UC San Diego and Sussex University in Brighton, England for undergraduate studies, earning his degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology.  He then attended UC Irvine for medical school where he earned his medical degree.  Internship in Internal Medicine followed at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon.  From there, he returned home to UCLA and Olive View Medical Center where he finished his residency in Internal Medicine.  He worked Los Angeles emergency rooms for a year before getting married and finally returning to the UCLA programs in 1993 to begin fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine.  

During his training, Dr. Lebby developed a keen interest in control of breathing and pulmonary mechanics, which ultimately led to his interest in the respiratory changes which occur during sleep.  He had the good fortune of exposure to several early patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (OHS).  At that time that there was poor understanding of these diseases and patients had few available options for treatment.  Luckily he was taken under the wing of some early pioneers in the new field of Sleep Medicine who happened to work throughout the UCLA programs.

Sleep Medicine as a sub-specialty was in its infancy in the early 1990’s and formal sleep training programs were rare.  Doctor Lebby pieced together a Sleep Medicine Fellowship under the auspices of his sleep mentors, including Pulmonologists, Neurologists, and basic science researchers.  Ultimately he qualified to sit the boards under the auspices of the American Sleep Disorders Association.  He graduated from UCLA Fellowship training in 1996 with Boards in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases.  The next year he passed the Sleep Medicine Boards, becoming a Diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine in 1997.  This distinguished himself as one of the first 1000 dedicated Sleep Medicine Physicians in the entire United States.  He later was appointed a Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Dr. Lebby spent the next decade as a partner in Barlow Pulmonary Medical Group, a 3 physician team caring for patients at the renowned Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles.  This specialty center dedicated its focus to chronically critically ill patients, usually with multi-organ failure, including respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation.  Patients were generally transferred to Barlow from outside hospital ICU’s after failing to improve despite prolonged efforts at treatment.  His group was responsible for all pulmonary care at the hospital and helped developed weaning protocols for weaning patients off of long term mechanical ventilation.  The center specialized in all types of chronic lung disease and also had an active Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program.  Doctor Lebby was appointed the Director of the Hospitals very first Sleep Program.  He also spearheaded a Non-Invasive Ventilation Program using positive airway pressure devices for the respiratory treatment of patients with chronic respiratory failure, including patients with severe lung diseases such as COPD, and Neuromuscular Diseases such as ALS.

In 2006 Dr. Lebby changed gears and began focusing his attention solely on sleep disorders.  He moved to Orange County and began working with several Sleep Laboratories in the Southern California area.  At that time sleep patients still had very few options and had difficulty finding physicians with specialty in Sleep Medicine.  Over the years thankfully this has evolved and now patients can often find a caregiver with at least some degree of training is sleep.  

Dr. Lebby maintains an active practice evaluating and counseling patients with all types of sleep disorders.  Currently most patients referred to sleep specialists have complaints referable to snoring and OSA.  He interprets laboratory sleep studies for several sleep laboratories, including diagnostic nocturnal polysomnography, positive airway pressure (PAP) titration studies, and Multiple Sleep Latency Tests.   

Dr. Lebby has also developed a strong interest in the use of oral devices for the treatment of OSA and snoring.  Many patients cannot tolerate PAP devices and many have been left to struggle without any treatment.  He has had a long time collaboration with the very successful oral appliance company Apnea Sciences Corporation which manufactures several oral devices highly effective in the treatment of OSA and snoring.  Dr. Lebby joined Ocean Medicine in 2018 as the adult sleep specialist, and believes that with thorough evaluation, patient education, and counseling, patients and doctors together can make the best decisions regarding their treatment options for OSA and snoring.