In June, 3,500 sleep professionals converged on Indianapolis to learn about the latest research on sleep and sleep disorders at the SLEEP 2023 conference.
I was invited to present a talk about Delayed Sleep Wake Phase Disorder (DSPD) on a patient advocacy panel entitled: Delay in Diagnosis: How Health Disparities, Lack of Awareness, and Payer Policies Ultimately Impact the Patient. It was organized and hosted by Dr. Raman Malhotra, a sleep specialist and past president of American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2021-2022).
Panel participants included patient advocacy organizations representing sleep apnea, narcolepsy and hypersomnia.
Circadian rhythms were a major topic of discussion throughout the five-day conference. Dr. Phyllis C. Zee, a member of the CSD-N Medical Advisory Board, delivered the conference keynote address: Bridging Circadian and Sleep Science to Enhance Healthspan.
CSD-N had a booth in the Advocacy Pavilion of the exhibit area - it was well trafficked and there were many inquiries about circadian rhythm sleep disorders.
Booth visitors included researchers from Harvard University and Stanford University who are researching biomarkers in blood samples of DSPD patients as well as a researcher from the University of Nevada at Reno who is studying the pupils of DSPD patients to gauge their reactivity to light.
