The National Center on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR) was established within The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in 1993. As a research, advocacy and coordinating center, it is responsible for conducting and supporting research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to sleep disorders, and coordinating sleep-related programs with other NIH components, Federal agencies, and public entities.

The Director of the NCSDR, NHLBI, also serves as Chair of the Trans-NIH Sleep Research Coordinating Committee (SRCC). The 1996 National Sleep Disorders Research Plan, developed under the leadership of the NCSDR and the Trans-NIH SRCC, has been an important resource and stimulus for progressive expansion of sleep-related programs within NHLBI and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (see Appendix C). Indeed, since 1996 sleep-related initiatives totaling more than more than $110 million have been funded and the total for all sleep-related research grants within NIH has doubled.

To build on the achievements of the past 6 years and identify new opportunities for progress, we embarked on a comprehensive revision of the 1996 Plan, reviewing accomplishments, remaining knowledge gaps, promising new scientific directions, and unforeseen new challenges. A Task Force, consisting of fourteen basic science and clinical research scientists who represent a broad interdisciplinary range of biomedical expertise, was appointed to undertake this task. Its members are:

David P. White, MD, Chair
Thomas Balkin, PhD
Gene Block, PhD*
Daniel Buysse, MD
David F. Dinges, PhD
David Gozal, MD
Steve Henriksen, PhD
Hannah C. Kinney, MD
Carol A. Landis, DNSc, RN*
Emmanuel Mignot, MD, PhD*
Judith A. Owens, MD
Jerry M. Siegel, PhD
Esther Sternberg, MD
Debra E. Weese-Mayer, MD

*Member, 2002 Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board (SDRAB)

The 2003 Revised Sleep Disorders Research Plan submitted by this Task Force and approved by the Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board (SDRAB) summarizes the dramatic expansion in interdisciplinary sleep-related research and resulting new knowledge achieved since the original 1996 Plan. The sleep research recommendations should serve as a valuable stimulus and guide to researchers in many disciplines for prioritizing and planning future research directions that will lead to expanding knowledge of the inter-relationships between sleep, health maintenance, and disease prevention.

Claude Lenfant, MD
Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute