Historic Breakthroughs Set Stage for Today’s Sleep Research

More than 1,150 scientific abstracts will be presented at SLEEP 2008, displaying the latest findings in sleep research. This research follows the historic discoveries made in previous years by sleep scientists. These are some of the milestones in the history of sleep research, courtesy of the American Sleep Medicine Foundation:

1875 – Caton records the brain electrical activity of animals in England.
1880 – Gelineau describes a group of patients in France with a problem he names “narcolepsy.”
1929 - Berger discovers and reports the “electroencephalogram (EEG) of man” in Germany.
1937 – Loomis documents the EEG patterns of what is now called non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep.
1945 – Ekbom describes restless legs syndrome in Sweden.
1953 – Kleitman and Aserinsky at the University of Chicago describe the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep and propose a correlation with dreaming.
1957 – Dement and Kleitman describe the repeating stages of the human sleep cycle.
1966 – Gastaut and colleagues in France, and Jung and Kuhlo in Germany discover obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
1972 – Studies pinpoint the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) as the site of the biologic clock.
1981 – Sullivan and colleagues use continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to treat OSA.
1986 - Schenck, Mahowald and colleagues publish the first formal description of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD).
1989 – Rechtschaffen and colleagues find that total sleep deprivation results in the death of all rats within two to three weeks.
1999 – Studies show that hypocretin mutations cause narcolepsy in mice and dogs.
2000 – Mignot and colleagues at Stanford discover that human narcolepsy also is associated with hypocretin deficiency.

Recognition of Sleep Medicine as a Medical Subspecialty

The field of sleep medicine has grown significantly since 700 people attended the first SLEEP annual meeting in June 1986 in Columbus, Ohio. Today sleep medicine is recognized as an independent medical subspecialty. Here are some milestones in the development of the field of sleep medicine:

1964 - The first sleep disorders center opens as a narcolepsy clinic at Stanford.
1975 – Blue Shield of California begins reimbursing patients for sleep services.
1975 – The Association of Sleep Disorders Centers is formed (later to become the American Academy of Sleep Medicine)
1977 – American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) grants accreditation to a sleep center for the first time.
1978 – AASM begins board certification for sleep specialists.
1989 – AASM begins to accredit fellowship training programs in sleep medicine.
1995 – American Medical Association (AMA) recognizes sleep medicine as a self-designated practice specialty.
1997 – AMA grants the AASM a seat in its House of Delegates.
1997 – Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) accredits the AASM as a sponsor of continuing medical education for physicians.
2003 – Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) formally recognizes sleep medicine as an independent subspecialty.
2004 – ACGME approves program requirement for residency education in sleep medicine training.
2006 – Number of sleep centers and laboratories accredited by the AASM surpasses 1,000.
2007 – The board examination in sleep medicine is administered for the first time by member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties.

Source: Shepard JW, Buysse DJ, Chesson AL, et al. History of the development of sleep medicine in the United States. J Clin Sleep Med 2005;1:61-82.