Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Priorities for Research, Patient Care, Policy and Education

Study Objective: To achieve consensus among pediatric sleep medicine practitioners on recommendations for the advancement of the field in the areas of research, clinical practice, education, and public policy.

Methods: Leading pediatric sleep medicine researchers and clinicians, in collaboration with Brown Medical School, convened a conference to discuss the state of the field. Participants engaged in multiple discussion panels and work groups, ultimately creating recommendations to advance basic and clinical research, clinical practice, sleep education, and public policy.

Results: Participants reached agreement on the major challenges facing the field. Key points of consensus were the need to conduct long-term epidemiologic studies of sleep patterns and sleep disorders in children, standardize polysomnography and other sleep-measurement methodologies, examine the links between insufficient and disrupted sleep in the pediatric population and physical and mental health outcomes, and develop clinical standards of practice. Attendees also agreed on the need to educate more medical health practitioners and the public on pediatric sleep. The importance of research on sleep in children and adolescents to inform public policy decisions was also endorsed.

Conclusions: Pediatric sleep medicine is a related, but unique, discipline within the broader field of sleep medicine. Additional research, both basic and clinical, on all aspects of children's sleep is necessary to elucidate the neurophysiologic basis of normal sleep development; to establish a solid foundation for the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of pediatric sleep disorders; and to formulate evidence-based public policy in sleep health.