Delaying Middle School and High School Start Times Promotes Student Health and Performance: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement.

ABSTRACT: During adolescence, internal circadian rhythms and biological sleep drive change to result in later sleep and wake times. As a result of these changes, early middle school and high school start times curtail sleep, hamper a student's preparedness to learn, negatively impact physical and mental health, and impair driving safety. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence shows that delaying school start times positively impacts student achievement, health, and safety. Public awareness of the hazards of early school start times and the benefits of later start times are largely unappreciated. As a result, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine is calling on communities, school boards, and educational institutions to implement start times of 8:30 AM or later for middle schools and high schools to ensure that every student arrives at school healthy, awake, alert, and ready to learn.

A dozen years of American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) International Mini-Fellowship: program evaluation and future directions.

UNLABELLED: Sleep medicine remains an underrepresented medical specialty worldwide, with significant geographic disparities with regard to training, number of available sleep specialists, sleep laboratory or clinic infrastructures, and evidence-based clinical practices. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is committed to facilitating the education of sleep medicine professionals to ensure high-quality, evidence-based clinical care and improve access to sleep centers around the world, particularly in developing countries. In 2002, the AASM launched an annual 4-week training program called Mini-Fellowship for International Scholars, designed to support the establishment of sleep medicine in developing countries. The participating fellows were generally chosen from areas that lacked a clinical infrastructure in this specialty and provided with training in AASM Accredited sleep centers. This manuscript presents an overview of the program, summarizes the outcomes, successes, and lessons learned during the first 12 years, and describes a set of programmatic changes for the near-future, as assembled and proposed by the AASM Education Committee and recently approved by the AASM Board of Directors. CITATION: Ioachimescu OC; Wickwire EM; Harrington J; Kristo D; Arnedt JT; Ramar K; Won C; Billings ME; DelRosso L; Williams S; Paruthi S; Morgenthaler TI. A dozen years of American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) international mini-fellowship: program evaluation and future directions.