Division of Sleep Medicine

In March, 2001, the Division of Sleep Medicine was established as a new division within the Department of Medicine. The mission of the division is to forge a path of discovery in sleep medicine while providing the highest standard of clinical care for patients with sleep disorders and training the next generation of leaders in sleep medicine.

In 2008 our program was awarded an Academic Center of Distinction by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. This program (co-directed by Charles Czeisler, PhD, MD, Clinical Director Stuart F. Quan, MD, and Associate Clinical Director Susan Redline, MD, MPH) is one of the first such programs in the country. The award was to recognize our contributions to the field of sleep medicine including in the care of patients, research into sleep disorders and circadian rhythms, and teaching of the next generation of young doctors and scientists.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has a distinguished history in the fields of sleep and circadian rhythm research. In 1929, Drs. Fulton and Bailey, working in Dr. Harvey Cushing’s neurosurgery service at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, first identified the anterior region of the hypothalamus as the brain center responsible for the timing of sleep within the 24-hour day (now recognized to be the site of the human circadian pacemaker within the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus). More recently, the resetting effect of light on, and the intrinsic period of, the human circadian pacemaker were discovered at BWH. In addition, BWH has an advanced program of both clinical care and patient-oriented research on the diagnosis and treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders that is well renowned across the nation.