The Japanese Society of Sleep Research

Message from the President
Naohisa Uchimura, President of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research

日本睡眠学会理事長 内村 直尚

 My name is Naohisa Uchimura of Kurume University, and I was elected President of the Japanese Sleep Society at the Board of Directors meeting held on July 10, 2021. Together with Shintaro Chiba, Vice President; Yuichi Inoue, Specially Appointed Vice President; and Wataru Yamadera, Secretary General of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research, I will do my utmost to carry on and further develop the history and tradition of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research and to make its power useful to people and societies.

 The Japanese Society of Sleep Research has an interdisciplinary tradition in which nearly 4,000 members think together beyond the boundaries of their own specialty. Since the dawn of society, annual scientific meetings have brought together members from various fields related to sleep, including physiology, biology, clinical medicine, clinical laboratory science, psychology, engineering, nursing, and public health/epidemiology, and have cultivated an attitude of learning and thinking about sleep from various perspectives. The presidents of scientific meetings were selected from a variety of fields, and each meeting has been held uniquely. In the future, we would like to further invigorate the society by emphasizing the diversity of its members, who can maximize their abilities by appointing female directors and councilors from various fields, and by fostering the young generation who will be responsible for the future of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research.

 Creation of a framework for public research funding and promotion of sleep studies, development of a system of medical and dental specialists and a system of specialized laboratory technicians, lobbying for appropriate insurance medical costs, expansion of education on sleep, provision of accurate information to the government, specialists in subspecialties of the Japan Medical Specialty Organization, introduction of reform of the way doctors work from 2024, ethical issues, etc. There are many challenges around us. In order to appropriately respond to these issues, the Japanese Society of Sleep Research has established various committees consisting of members from different fields.

 To make the activities of the committees more effective, former President Makoto Uchiyama divided the existing committees into permanent committees related to the management of society, and the basic activities of each field and working group established to solve individual problems and upgraded important subcommittees into permanent committees. This has allowed each committee to become more powerful. We hope this system will operate more functionally in the future.

 In 2016, the World Sleep Federation and World Association of Sleep Medicine combined to create the new World Sleep Society. In Asia, national sleep societies have become more active and the number of people involved in sleep research and medicine has increased. We hope to continue developing sleep studies in the Asia-Pacific region.

 Thanks to the efforts of many senior members of the society, Sleep and Biological Rhythms (SBR), an international journal of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research, received an impact factor of 1.186. I would like to make a concerted effort to make the SBR an important information platform for the Japanese Society of Sleep Research in the world.

 Furthermore, with the recent technological innovations based on big data, artificial intelligence, and high-speed communication, we would like to reconsider the use of sleep studies as beneficial to changing work, education, and lifestyles in a world where paradigm changes occur not only in industry but also in many other areas, including telemedicine. We also believe that we can contribute to society from the viewpoints of sleep science, sleep medicine, and sleep sociology to the physical and psychological health and lifestyles of people affected by the new coronavirus.

 Let us gather the strength of our members, disseminate sleep science from Japan to the world, and contribute to the international society, including Japan.

The Japanese Society of Sleep Research
President Naohisa Uchimura