Geriatric Sleep Medicine, a Young Field

Geriatric Sleep Medicine, also known as sleep medicine of old age, is medical field dealing with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in older adults. From the 2000s, through the pioneering approach of the two physicians, Dr. S. Hakki Onen (University of Lyon, France) and Dr. Fannie Onen (University of Paris, France), Geriatric Sleep Medicine was structured as a new clinical sub-specialty. These visionaries opened first Geriatric Sleep Medicine Centers dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders of older patients with medical comorbid conditions and disabilities. For about two decades these centers encompass patient care, research, and educational missions. In 2006, the French Ministry of Health released a report on sleep including a Geriatric Sleep Medicine section co-authored by Onen F and Onen SH [1]. It was highlighted that sleep disorders in older people are usually unrecognized and/or untreated, contributing to a wide range of deleterious health and safety consequences including sedative drug abuse, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular complications, post-operative hazards, falls/fractures and increased mortality. Consequently, authors called for increased awareness among healthcare professionals about the physiology of healthy sleep and sleep disorders in older adults and the development and implementation of education programs to promote the early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of sleep disorders. The SFRMS (French Sleep Society) supported this call by organizing special sessions on sleep disorders and aging during its annual meetings. Later, in 2009 the first and unique Geriatric Sleep Medicine School was created in both Universities Paris and Lyon deliverGeriatric Sleep Medicine, a Young Field