Circadian Health and Light: A Report on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Workshop.

Despite the omnipresence of artificial and natural light exposure, there exists little guidance in the United States and elsewhere on light exposure in terms of timing, intensity, spectrum, and other light characteristics known to affect human health, performance, and well-being; in parallel, there is little information regarding the quantity and characteristics of light exposure that people receive. To address this, the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, in the Division of Lung Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, held a workshop in August 2016 on circadian health and light. Workshop participants discussed scientific research advances on the effects of light on human physiology, identified remaining knowledge gaps in these research areas, and articulated opportunities to use appropriate lighting to protect and improve circadian-dependent health.

Knowledge Gaps in the Perioperative Management of Adults with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome. An Official American Thoracic Society Workshop Report.

The purpose of this workshop was to identify knowledge gaps in the perioperative management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS). A single-day meeting was held at the American Thoracic Society Conference in May, 2016, with representation from many specialties, including anesthesiology, perioperative medicine, sleep, and respiratory medicine. Further research is urgently needed as we look to improve health outcomes for these patients and reduce health care costs.

Health consequences of electric lighting practices in the modern world: A report on the National Toxicology Program's workshop on shift work at night, artificial light at night, and circadian disruption.

The invention of electric light has facilitated a society in which people work, sleep, eat, and play at all hours of the 24-hour day. Although electric light clearly has benefited humankind, exposures to electric light, especially light at night (LAN), may disrupt sleep and biological processes controlled by endogenous circadian clocks, potentially resulting in adverse health outcomes. Many of the studies evaluating adverse health effects have been conducted among night- and rotating-shift workers, because this scenario gives rise to significant exposure to LAN.

Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society.

Sleep is essential for optimal health. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and Sleep Research Society (SRS) developed a consensus recommendation for the amount of sleep needed to promote optimal health in adults, using a modified RAND Appropriateness Method process. The recommendation is summarized here.

Digital biology: an emerging and promising discipline.

This article examines the role of computation and quantitative methods in modern biomedical research to identify emerging scientific, technical, policy and organizational trends. It identifies common concerns and practices in the emerging community of computationally-oriented bio-scientists by reviewing a national symposium, Digital Biology: the Emerging Paradigm, held at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, November 6th and 7th 2003. This meeting showed how biomedical computing promises scientific breakthroughs that will yield significant health benefits.