On Monday and Tuesday, April 11- 12, 2005, the Committee on Sleep Medicine and Research held its first meeting at The National Academies facility on Constitution Avenue.  The meeting was held to gather information to help the committee conduct its study. 

On Tuesday, April 12^th the committee held a public workshop to explore the public health significance of sleep, sleep loss, and sleep disorders.  Topics included the impact sleep disorders and sleep deprivation have on children, adults, and the elderly as well as the effects of sleep deprivation on function and performance.  Each speaker identified the 3 or 4 major outstanding questions that need to be answered, the barriers impeding these questions from being realized, and what can be done to overcome these barriers. 

Read meeting agenda

This was the first of five meetings that the committee will hold to collect information and conduct their deliberations.  In addition to this open session, the committee will later hold one other public workshop to further inform the study process (June 29-30, 2005).

The committee is interested in receiving written comments and other materials that might be of assistance in addressing the four-part charge.  Thus, if you wish to submit such materials that address the committee tasks, please submit them to the project's staff officer, Bruce Altevogt, at baltevogt@nas.edu.  Your comments will be considered by the committee during the study period. Any comments submitted will be put in the public access file.