Year-End Letter from the President

Dear Members of World Sleep Society,

From all of us at World Sleep Society (WSS), happy New Year! As we reflect on 2017, we can all feel pride about our accomplishments in the past year. From the completion of the merger of WASM and WSF into World Sleep Society, to the largest World Sleep congress in history, 2017 was a momentous year (read full Annual Report).

First and foremost, I would like to note that our success would not have been possible without the dedication of our international committee members, as well as strong leadership and hard work of our small, but mighty staff at central office. I would also like to thank several people who have guided the transition of WASM and WSF into WSS, namely Richard Allen, Colin Espie, Clete Kushida, Allan O’Bryan, Claudia Trenkwalder and Anthony Williams. As this is my first term as President, I would also like to thank Past-President, Dr. Clete Kushida, for propelling this new organization forward.

As an illustration of this past year success, the World Sleep 2017 congress held in Prague brought together 2,627 clinicians, researchers, trainees and technologists from 76 countries. The program offered an impressive scientific content covering both basic and clinical sleep and circadian rhythm sciences (102 symposia, 16 courses, 16 keynotes, 1,208 oral and poster presentations), including several talks on circadian rhythms, the very topic that won a Nobel Prize in 2017. Not surprisingly, 97% of respondents endorsed the statement, “World Sleep 2017 provided me with new ideas and resources.”

And being at the forefront of revolutionary science must be credited to you–the World Sleep Society community. World Sleep Day was also a thriving event with 155 sleep awareness activities taking place in 58 countries around the globe.

So as the calendar page turns to a new year, let me say thank you. Thank you for your continued dedication, loyalty and support. It is a great honor for me to be leading the WSS and I look forward to a very successful year ahead with continued efforts to promote sleep education, training, research, and clinical services. Let us all march into 2018 with pride of what we have accomplished and the drive to make the next year even more amazing as we advance sleep health worldwide.

With very best wishes,

Charles M. Morin, PhD
President, World Sleep Society

See full list of World Sleep Society leadership.