OUR MISSION
Why do young phycians should be interest in sleep?
Sleep affects everybody. The human being sleeps more than 1/4 or 1/3 of his life. Especially in our physical health sleep is one of the keys to a healthy life. Ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes. Sleep is as important as eating healthy and exercising. In fact, short sleep duration is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity. The aim of the academy is to train young physicians in sleep medicine, to lessen the burden of sleep problems on our society and to endeavours to advance Science and Research in Sleep.
What is the aim of the Academy?
The European Academy of Sleep Medicine was created to help to increase the knowledge of sleep – especially sleep breathing disorders (SBD) among physicians. The prevalence of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea was (95% CI 20·9–26·0) in women and 49·7% (46·6–52·8) in men in the HypoLaus study, therefore it is much higher than the prevalence of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) that, according to the WHO, is 8.5%. Moderate to severe OSA is associated with increased cardiovascular risk (fatal and non-fatal accidents are increased 3-fold), car and work accidents caused by sleepiness, detriment in quality of life and other morbidities (cancer, obesity, DM, depression, dementia). Children who suffer of OSA score less than control ones in intelligence test even after being treated because the lack of oxygen has an important impact in the development of the brain. As the cause of OSA is the obstruction of the upper airway (UA) during the night, the ENT has an important role in diagnosis and treatment. Even though surgical treatment it is not the first line treatment for adult OSA, and the Cochrane review concluded that “surgery has failed to demonstrate consistent effects in favour of surgery and do not provide convincing evidence to support its use in sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome”, new evidences show that surgery has a role in reducing cerebrovascular and cardiovascular problems and also might have a role in reducing dementia risk. Our mission as the EASM is to provide knowledge on SDB and to promote networking amongst physicians in order to produce high evidence that we as ENT have an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of SDB.
