The report, Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem is available in prepublication format and to read online.  Please click here (or the title above) to go to our National Academies Press to find out more.

Study Background:

Sleep medicine and sleep research has been growing exponentially for the last 20 years. By 2002, over 2,000 specialized sleep centers existed in the United States alone.  The growth of the field has been fueled by the needs of a large patient population.

Clinical practice related to sleep problems and sleep disorders has been expanding rapidly in the last few years, but scientific research is not keeping pace.  Insomnia and restless legs syndrome are two examples of very common disorders for which we know very little about neurobiologically. 

The field of sleep medicine is multidisciplinary, cutting across multiple Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Sleep research is not limited to very young and old patients--sleep disorders reach across all ages and ethnicities.  The most pressing need recognized by the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research's National Sleep Disorders Research Plan was training and coordination of sleep medicine and sleep research in existing academic health centers.  Therefore, there is a need to develop new programs for the training of future sleep researchers and sleep medicine clinicians. 

The Institute of Medicine convened an ad hoc committee of experts in public health, academic and medical administration, and health sciences research.  The committee addressed the following issues:

1. Review and quantify the public health significance of sleep health, sleep loss, and sleep disorders based on current knowledge.  This task will include assessments of the contribution of sleep disorders to poor health, reduced quality of life, and early mortality, and the economic consequences of sleep loss and sleep disorders, including lost wages and productivity. Target populations will be segmented as children, adults, and the elderly.
2. Identify gaps in the public health system relating to the understanding, management, and treatment of sleep loss and sleep disorders, and assess the adequacy of the current resources and infrastructures for addressing the gaps.  The committee, however, will not be responsible for making any budgetary recommendations.
3. Identify barriers to and opportunities for improving and stimulating multidisciplinary research, education, and training in sleep medicine. Delineate fiscal and academic organizational models that promote and facilitate: sleep research in the basic sciences; cooperative research efforts between basic science disciplines and clinical practice specialties; and multidisciplinary efforts in education and training of practitioners in sleep health, sleep disorders, and sleep research.
4. Develop a comprehensive plan for enhancing sleep medicine and sleep research, as appropriate, for improving the public's health.  This will include interdisciplinary initiatives for research, medical education, training, clinical practice, and health policy.