How the California Sleep Society Raises Awareness About Sleep

Learn About Sleep

The California Sleep Society will hold its 9th annual educational symposium September 30 to October 1, 2016 in Anaheim, CA.  

As corporate members of this organization, we will be attending the symposium next week to learn about the latest advances in patient care and technology related to sleep medicine.

We will meet with key opinion leaders in the field of sleep medicine, sleep specialists from across the state of California, polysomnography technicians, CPAP equipment manufacturers like ResMed and Respironics and companies developing novel solutions to treat sleep disorders, like the Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation Device.

Here’s more information about the history of sleep medicine in California and the vision and mission of the California Sleep Society.

Mission of the California Sleep Society

The California Sleep Society (CSS) has been organized for scientific and educational purposes, and to act as a voice for sleep professionals in the State of California. The CSS promotes and provides education in polysomnography and sleep medicine as well as increased public awareness of the field. The CSS encourages and assists in the advancement of scientific and technical standards of polysomnographic technology, and promotes the highest standards of training and qualifications for sleep medicine physicians and polysomnographic technologists. The CSS endeavors to protect and preserve the public trust in sleep medicine physicians and polysomnographic technologists by promoting the highest level of clinical standards for patient care and safety in order to produce the highest quality of polysomnographic data and sleep disorders treatment.

Bringing together sleep specialists from across California

Over 240 sleep specialists, healthcare providers, technicians and others will gather in Anaheim later this week for two days of educational sessions covering many topics and disciplines.

Topics include:

  • Sleep and Sports Performance – Scott J. Kutscher, MD, Stanford University
  • When Dreams Leave the Night – Living with Narcolepsy-  Julie Flygare, JD, Project Sleep
  • Cardiovascular Consequences of Obstructive Sleep Apnea- Ravi Aysola, MD, UCLA
  • Tele-Medicine and Electronic Medical Records in Sleep Medicine – The New Frontier- Dennis X. Hwang, MD, Kaiser Permanente

Here’s a link to the full agenda.

Educating physicians of all specialties about sleep medicine

A brief history of sleep research from Stanford.edu:

Pieron, Kleitman and Aserinsky

In 1913, French Scientist Henri Pieron authored a book entitled “Le probleme physiologique du sommeil,” which was the first text to examine sleep from a physiological perspective. This work is usually regarded as the beginning of the modern approach to sleep research. Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman, now known as the “Father of American sleep research,” began work in Chicago in the 1920s questioning the regulation of sleep and wakefulness and of circadian rhythms. Kleitman’s crucial work included studies of sleep characteristics in different populations and the effect of sleep deprivation. In 1953 he and one of his students, Dr. Eugene Aserinsky, made the landmark discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep.
 
Dement and Jouvet

Another of Kleitman’s students, Dr. William C. Dement, extended Dr. Kleitman’s path of research. Dement described the “cyclical” nature of nocturnal sleep in 1955, and in 1957 and ’58 established the relationship between REM sleep and dreaming. In 1958, Dement published a paper on the existence of a cyclic organization of sleep in cats. This finding (sleep cycles in species other than humans) created an explosion of fundamental research that pulled together researchers from many different fields (electro-physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry) for the next 20 years, and led to Michel Jouvet’s identification of REM sleep as an independent state of alertness, which he called “paradoxical sleep.”

Gastaut

In Europe, the discoveries by H. Gastaut and colleagues of the presence of apnea during sleep in a subgroup of “Pickwickian” patients (1965) led to a flurry of investigations of the control exercised by the “sleeping brain” on the body’s vital functions. This type of work eventually led to the new discipline of “sleep medicine.”

Modern Sleep Research

Today, sleep research comprises many different areas: narcolepsy research; sleep and cardio-respiratory research; and studies of pain and sleep, circadian rhythms, shift work and it’s effects on sleep, sleep deprivation, sleep and aging, and infant sleep.

Are you attending the CSS Symposium? If so, please visit us! If you’re a physician interested in learning more about screening, diagnosing and treating your patients with sleep disorders, request a call from our sales team.

Request sales call  

Sources:

http://californiasleepsociety.org/ 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2413168/
http://www.howsleepworks.com/research.html 
https://web.stanford.edu/~dement/history.html 

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Kermit Newman

Kermit Newman

Kermit Newman is the CEO and President of Advanced Sleep Medicine Services, Inc.

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