History of Sleep Medicine and the Iranian Sleep Medicine Society
The first request to establish the Iranian Sleep Medicine Society (ISMS) was submitted to the Ministry of Health in 2003 by specialists from five different medical fields. After persistent follow-up, the charter of the Iranian Sleep Medicine Society was approved by the Ministry of Health in 2005 as a multidisciplinary field. Following the first election of its members, the first board of directors of the Iranian Sleep Medicine Society, chaired by Dr. Mohammad Farhadi and with Dr. Khosrow Sadeghian as the secretary, was established. The board initially consisted of seven specialists from different fields and laid the foundation for sleep science in the country.
The mission of this society is to improve public sleep health as one of the essential pillars of overall health. The goals pursued by the society include providing the infrastructure for sleep medicine, such as developing a curriculum for fellowship training in sleep medicine, establishing sleep medicine centers, creating standards for sleep tests, determining tariffs for specialized sleep medicine services, educating doctors in various specialties to improve early diagnosis and treatment, supporting research in sleep science, training sleep technicians, promoting insurance coverage for sleep medicine services, and facilitating better access to specialized sleep equipment.
Over the past twenty years since the establishment of the society, the foundation for the sleep medicine fellowship program has been established, and today, it is possible to train fellows in sleep medicine at six major medical universities in Iran. In addition to leading in multi-disciplinary sleep medicine fellowship training in the region, Iran has earned a prominent research position in the field of sleep medicine at the regional level. It is hoped that this solid foundation will continue to grow and thrive in the future. Notable achievements include the establishment of approved research centers for sleep disorders, the approval and implementation of screening regulations for sleep disorders in professional drivers since 2005, and the publication of the *Journal of Sleep Sciences* in English (in collaboration with the Tehran University of Medical Sciences since 2016), which is a significant milestone in the Middle East in the field of sleep medicine.
The Iranian Sleep Medicine Society has strategies to raise national awareness about the importance of sleep health and its disorders, ensure equal access to treatment for sleep disorders, reduce the consequences and injuries caused by sleep disorders, and increase workforce productivity by promoting sleep health in the community. The society continually strives to achieve these goals.
This society played a key role in the development and approval of the sleep medicine fellowship program in 2012, fully supporting its implementation at universities. The first graduate of this program in Iran, Dr. Zahra Banafsha Al-Mohammad, completed her fellowship in 2013 at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. With the society’s support, the fellowship program was then extended to other universities, including Shahid Beheshti, Iran, Qazvin, Mashhad, and Isfahan, with a multi-disciplinary approach involving eight specialties (occupational medicine, psychiatry, neurology, pediatrics, internal medicine, pulmonology, otolaryngology, and anesthesia). In the field of pediatric sleep medicine, Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, under the persistent efforts of Dr. Shabnam Jalilqadr, became a pioneer in offering pediatric sleep fellowships in Iran.
The society has also collaborated in organizing educational and research conferences, participated in international cooperation with the Asian Sleep Society, the World Sleep Society, and other international organizations in the field. It has successfully developed standard sleep service protocols and guidelines for sleep clinics, which were implemented in 2018 and 2020, respectively, establishing a standard for sleep medicine services in the country.
With the significant progress made in the past two decades, the society has developed strategies to increase the number of trained sleep medicine specialists and accredited sleep clinics. It is also working towards ensuring that sleep medicine services are covered by both basic and supplementary insurance plans, making diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders accessible to all segments of society. The society’s future strategies, vision, and direction aim to promote sleep medicine across Iran, improve sleep health as a fundamental aspect of public health, and maintain and enhance Iran’s scientific position in the region and globally in the field of sleep science.