DARIEN, IL – May 21, 2021 – Don’t miss your opportunity to join leading scientists and sleep clinicians from around the globe at the world’s largest meeting for sleep and circadian science. Virtual SLEEP 2021, the 35th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC, is June 10-13, 2021 in an exciting online-only format. The meeting will feature livestreamed content as well as on-demand recorded sessions to view even after the conference ends.
Virtual SLEEP begins Thursday, June 10, with the plenary session, featuring keynote speaker Eus JW Van Someren, who has a doctorate in neurobiology and studies the brain mechanisms of insomnia. He leads the sleep and cognition group at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and holds a professorship at the Department of Integrative Neurophysiology and Psychiatry at the VU University and Medical Center in Amsterdam. The virtual plenary session also will include recognition of the 2021 American Academy of Sleep Medicine award recipients and Sleep Research Society award recipients along with remarks from both organizations’ presidents.
The general session beginning June 11 includes abstract presentations, symposia, clinical workshops and discussion groups on topics ranging from sleep inertia and consumer technology to the COVID-19 pandemic and pediatric sleep disorders. Worldwide perspectives are reflected in the more than 35 international speakers scheduled to present.
“Great ideas come out of networking and talking with colleagues, researchers and clinicians, so we want to facilitate that as much as possible given the technology capabilities that we do have,” said APSS Program Chair Dr. Shalini Paruthi, co-director of the Sleep Medicine and Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in St. Louis. “We’ve tried to capture all of the elements we would typically have in person and convert that to a virtual format that still allows for people to interact with each other.”
Online posters are available 24-hours a day from June 9 – Nov. 30. Poster presenters may opt to have their poster removed on June 13 and will be denoted as such on the SLEEP platform. Opportunities to network with poster presenters will be offered each evening of the conference. The Virtual SLEEP 2021 exhibit hall will be open starting June 11, and attendees can connect with leading companies and learn about new products and services through video and online chats. Attendees can access the exhibit hall through Nov. 30, 2021. View the schedule and the preliminary program for complete details.
Highlights include:
- The abstract supplement, comprising more than 800 research abstracts, is available for download. Topics include telehealth for veterans, cognitive performance, EEG technology, and COVID-19 sleep data. Interviews with study authors and expert spokespersons can be scheduled by request.
- Updates and discussion on social media: Follow @aasmorg and @ResearchSleep on Twitter for live updates, and use the official hashtag #SLEEP2021 to share your meeting-related content and see what attendees are saying.
- Starting May 27, Meet the Professor sessions are open to all those interested in meeting speakers of Virtual SLEEP 2021. These one-hour sessions will be presented via Zoom and provide a glimpse of the great content you would receive as a SLEEP attendee.
- Enjoy 60 sessions across clinical sleep science and practice, basic and translational sleep and circadian science, and technologist tracks. An additional 61 presentations are available over nine postgraduate courses.
- On Saturday, June 12, Dr. Carlos Schenck will present the Tom Roth Lecture of Excellence, “REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: Past, Present, and Future.”
- A special Saturday evening musical event will reflect on how the sleep field began and will include personal stories from the pioneers and leaders who shaped the sleep field.
- Pandemic-related sessions include an invited lecture by Wendy Troxel, who has a doctorate in clinical/health psychology and is a senior behavioral and social scientist at the RAND Corporation, presenting “From Crime to COVID: Disparities in Sleep and What We Can Do About It.” There also will be an oral abstract session on the “Effect of COVID-19 on Adult Sleep Health.”
Learn more at sleepmeeting.org.
###
The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. To register as press for Virtual SLEEP 2021, contact AASM Communications Coordinator Corinne Lederhouse at 630-737-9700, ext. 9366, or at clederhouse@sleepmeeting.org.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
