Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public

Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11617.html
8 SLEEP DISORDERS AND SLEEP DEPRIVATION
researchers, and the public about the effectiveness of health care services,
programs, rules and regulations, and policies. However, there is currently
very little ongoing nationwide surveillance. Thus existing national and statewide
databases should be amended to allow for improved surveillance and
monitoring of the burden of sleep loss and sleep disorders in the United
States population.
Recommendation 5.3: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
and National Center on Sleep Disorders Research should
support additional surveillance and monitoring of sleep patterns
and sleep disorders.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working with the
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, should support the
development and expansion of adequate surveillance and monitoring
instruments designed to examine the American population’s
sleep patterns and the prevalence and health outcomes associated
with sleep disorders.
Increasing Awareness Among Health Professionals
Increasing education and training of health care professionals in somnology
and sleep medicine will improve the awareness of the associated
public health burden and attract a new pool of clinicians and scientists
interested in the field. Time devoted to sleep-related material in health and
life sciences curricula is inadequate given the magnitude of the morbid effects
that sleep disorders have on the most common diseases (e.g. obesity,
hypertension, heart attack, and diabetes) and accidents. Focused training
about sleep can positively influence the performance of health care providers.
In particular, medical, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy students require
greater exposure to the public health burden of sleep loss and sleep
disorders. Thus the committee makes the following recommendation to increase
sleep-related content in health sciences curricula.
Recommendation 5.2: Academic health centers should integrate the
teaching of somnology and sleep medicine into baccalaureate and
doctoral health sciences programs, as well as residency and fellowship
training and continuing professional development programs.
The subjects of sleep loss and sleep disorders should be included in
the curricula of relevant baccalaureate and graduate educational
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