The following is a recap of the California Sleep Society’s 14th annual education symposium.
The California Sleep Society recently hosted its 14th annual educational symposium in October in San Diego, California. After last year’s virtual conference, it was refreshing to go to a conference and see colleagues and speakers in person!
Day 1
The conference started on Friday morning, and the first talk was on COVID-19 and the sleep lab. Different approaches were discussed and shared, including COVID-19 testing for positive airway pressure (PAP) titration patients prior to the sleep study, air filtration in the patient rooms, personal protective equipment (PPE), technologist COVID-19 screening and vaccination mandates.
There were also presentations on consumer wearable devices, performance and future usage and validations. And speaking to the future of the sleep field, multiple presenters discussed the continuation of COVID-19 response and the 2025 vision for the field. Michael Ferrell, CEO, ResMed, and Dr. Atul Malhotra from the University of California San Diego spoke on the future of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) therapy.
Additional presentations for the day included an interesting talk by Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Ph.D., University of California San Diego, entitled “Sleep in the Bible: Nothing New Under the Sun,” in which she previewed her research of different Bible passages related to sleep and dreaming. AASM President-Elect Jennifer Martin, Ph.D., spoke on cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and provided AASM updates.
The day ended with a nice dinner by the canal and live music.
Day 2
The second day’s presentations covered some of the basics of our profession such as sleep disordered breathing management strategies, restless legs syndrome (RLS) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder, insomnia pharmacology and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders.
Talks that stood out to the attendees included “Enhancing Sleep to Advance Transportation Safety” by Mark Rosekind, Ph.D. from Zoox Inc. and “Sleep, Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Disease” by Dr. Richard Castriotta, University of Southern California, who presented research showing the benefit of nocturnal blood pressure monitoring. Castriotta remarked that nighttime high blood pressure may contribute to cardiovascular disease more so than daytime high blood pressure.
The conference ended with a presentation by California Sleep Society President-Elect Patrick Moday, who spoke on cannabis, sleep and society.