In March 2001, the Division of Sleep Medicine was established as a new Division within the Department of Medicine. The mission of this new Division is to forge a path of discovery in Sleep Medicine while providing the highest standard of clinical care for sleep disorders patients and training the next generation of leaders in sleep medicine.
Both Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard University have 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). Between 1934 and 1938, Dr. Loomis and his colleagues working in the Davis group at Harvard University were the first to describe the changes in the EEG spectrum that correlated with various stages of non-REM sleep. They recognized that at the transition to sleep, the EEG spectrum shifted towards lower frequencies and reported that sleep comprised a series of discrete, recurring stages. More recently, the resetting effect of light on and the intrinsic period of the human circadian pacemaker were discovered at BWH. HMS scientists have made important strides both in understanding the molecular mechanisms by which the circadian pacemaker keeps time and in identifying previously unrecognized brain structures that mediate the transition from wakefulness to sleep. In addition, BWH has the most advanced program of both clinical care and patient-oriented research on the diagnosis and treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders in the nation.
Sleep Medicine had been part of the Endocrine Division of the Department of Medicine at BWH for more than 20 years. Over the years, Sleep Medicine has grown substantially. For the period from July 2006 through June 2007, the Division had 27 faculty and 19 postdoctoral fellows appointed through the Department of Medicine at BWH. In addition, Sleep Medicine has over 70 full-time support staff (i.e., administrative staff, technical staff, research assistants, research technicians, graduate students, and student research technicians).
Scientists within the group conduct studies involving approximately 1,600 inpatient bed-days per year in the BWH General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). The clinical program has also grown dramatically: the BWH clinical sleep disorders service now includes about 2,400 bed-days of diagnostic/treatment polysomnograms and 1,440 outpatient visits annually.
The Division’s current annual expenditure on research grants is $12.5 million. Over the past 6 years the total research grant expenditures for the Division of Sleep Medicine are $65.6 million as outlined in the table below.
($millions) | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 6 Year Totals |
Salary & Fringe | 6 | 5.5 | 4.9 | 4.8 | 5.2 | 5.0 | 31.4 |
All other exp | 3.8 | 5.0 | 4.1 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 19.9 |
Total Direct | 9.8 | 10.5 | 9.0 | 7.2 | 7.7 | 7.0 | 51.3 |
IDC | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.2 | 14.4 |
TOTAL | 12.5 | 13.2 | 11.0 | 9.6 | 10.1 | 9.2 | 65.6 |
The Division continues to run a program of Training in Sleep, Circadian and Respiratory Neurobiology funded by the NIH/NHLBI National Center for Sleep Disorders Research, with trainee slots that include 6 postdoctoral trainees, 5 predoctoral graduate students, and 4 summer minority medical students. The Division hosts Sleep Grand Rounds, a monthly CME accredited colloquium that includes participating institutions from around the world. Faculty members also teach an HMS postgraduate CME course and a number of Harvard College undergraduate and Extension School courses.
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