Sleep-related topics are selected based on relevance to clinical practice of sleep medicine in Africa. Webinars are beneficial to both residents in-training and consultants in the areas of Neurology, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Ear Nose Throat, Ophthalmology, Dentistry, Anesthesiology, and Family Medicine. Students, under the platform of the Nigerian Sleep Society, and other health personnel such as nurses, and physiotherapists are also encouraged to attend.

The Webinars last for an hour and questions are discussed at the end. The Webinars have been well received by all the participants across Africa and beyond.

Affiliate Societies are professional sleep societies that are official members of World Sleep Society. There are over 50 Affiliate Societies across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. See all the current members here: worldsleepsociety.org/affiliate-societies/list/   

World Sleep Society convenes these sleep societies regularly through Assemblies to strengthen collaboration, share knowledge, and amplify impact across regions.  

The Assembly provides a forum for:

• Facilitating person-to-person connections among sleep societies worldwide 

• Sharing regional initiatives, challenges, and successes 

• Strengthening collaboration across countries and disciplines 

• Identifying opportunities for alignment and collective action among sleep societies 

Any professional sleep society that has interest in joining World Sleep Society as an Affiliate Society can learn more about the benefits, criteria, and application here: worldsleepsociety.org/affiliate-societies/ 

March 2026 Assembly: Sleep Health Advocacy 

The March 2026 Assembly focused on how Affiliate Societies are advancing sleep health through advocacy initiatives at local, national, and regional levels.

Discussions highlighted: 

• Public safety campaigns addressing drowsy driving 

• Workplace and hospitality initiatives promoting sleep-friendly environments 

• Policy engagement efforts influencing national decision-making 

• Strategies for increasing public awareness and education 

Affiliate Societies shared practical examples of how advocacy efforts can lead to measurable improvements in health, safety, and quality of life. 

Overview

This curated Learning Center Series from World Sleep Society collects over 17 hours of presentations exploring the relationship between sleep health, sleep disorders, and mental health across the lifespan. The presentations were recorded during World Sleep 2025 in Singapore and include two full courses, a keynote address, and a track of research symposia. Additional focus is dedicated to consumer health trackers as more patients integrate these devices into their daily life.

Find summaries, presentations, and speakers for each session in the Series Outline tab. Watch the sessions in the Presentations tab.

Audience

The series is intended for psychiatrists and sleep medicine practitioners, bridging the psychiatry and sleep medicine specialties. Those who are newer to sleep medicine are encouraged to begin with the Sleep, psychiatry and mental health course. Those interested in the latest research at the intersection of psychiatry and sleep can begin with the symposium sessions.

Included topics

• Sleep and psychiatric disorders 

 • Sleep loss and cognitive and emotional impact 

 • Adolescent sleep and mental health 

 • Advances in behavioral and psychological treatment for insomnia 

 • Sleep disturbances across mental health conditions 

 • Wake and sleep regulation in psychiatric disorders

Access is provided by the Learning Center as part of World Sleep Society’s commitment to advancing global sleep health education.

Registration Rates

Registration is free for World Sleep Society members and nonmembers. 

All registrations will need a free online account with World Sleep Society to register. 

Create your World Sleep Society account. For additional assistance visit the help page. 

Membership questions? Email info@worldsleepsociety.org. 

Sleep and Mental Health Series Outline

Over 17 hours of content in sleep and mental health is available in the series. Find the outline of presentations below, including summaries, speakers, and presentation titles. 

Course: Sleep, psychiatry and mental health

Chairs: Ahmed BaHammam (Saudi Arabia), Charles Morin (Canada) • Duration: 218 Minutes

This course discusses how sleep plays a role in emotional regulation and the reciprocal relationship between sleep disturbances and mental health. The course will focus on different psychiatric disorders and their relationship with sleep.

Presentations

• Epidemiology of sleep and psychiatric disorders: Charles Morin (Canada)
• The bi-directional relationships between insomnia and major depression: Clinical and diagnostic: Christoph Nissen (Switzerland)
• Sleep and post-traumatic stress disorders: Laura Palagini (Italy)
• Neuropsychiatric manifestations in narcolepsy: Ahmed BaHammam (Saudi Arabia)
• Pharmacological and behavioral management of sleep disturbances in psychiatric disorders: Christoph Nissen (Switzerland)

Course: Wearables and sleep trackers

Chairs: Michael Chee (Singapore), Cathy Goldstein (United States) • Duration: 226 Minutes

Persons worldwide track sleep with ubiquitous fitness trackers and smart watches. A large body of research now demonstrates that consumer geared health tracking devices have comparable sleep estimation capabilities to FDA cleared actigraphy. This course provides practical guidance on device selection and use.

Presentations

• Introduction: Michael Chee (Singapore)
• Multi-sensor wearable health trackers: Measurements and outputs: Mathias Baumert (Australia)
• Interpreting performance evaluation studies: Choosing the right device for your needs: Ju Lynn Ong (Singapore)
• Sleep tracker use in healthy individuals: Kelly Baron (United States)

Keynote: Sleep and development: Exploring the impact of sleep on mental health in children

Speaker: Tiina Paunio (Finland) • Duration: 44 Minutes

The presentation examined how infant sleep and brain development are closely connected. Using Finnish longitudinal studies, researchers found that sleep patterns stabilize during the first two years, while sleep problems in infancy were linked to emotional, behavioral, and attention difficulties later in childhood.

Presentations

• Introduction: Markku Partinen (Finland)
• Sleep and development: Exploring the impact of sleep on mental health in children: Tiina Paunio (Finland)

Symposium: Sleep loss increases intrusive memories: But how?

Chairs: Sean Drummond (Australia), Jessica Ogden (Australia) • Duration: 89 Minutes

The symposium explores how sleep influences intrusive memories, a key symptom of PTSD. Research suggests sleep disturbances contribute to PTSD, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Presentations will examine factors such as disrupted sleep, emotion regulation, memory consolidation, and executive control using diverse experimental approaches and clinical populations. The symposium features recent findings from an international, multidisciplinary group of researchers.

Presentations

• The impact of time of day and sleep architecture on the frequency and intensity of intrusions following an analogue trauma exposure: Jessica Paterson (Australia)
• Cognitive consequences of local sleep: From mental fatigue to hypersomnia's: Arthur LeCoz (France)
• Day-to-day relationships between sleep and intrusive memories following experimental trauma exposure: Jessica Ogden (Australia)
• The effects of sleep restriction and insomnia disorder on intrusive memories for emotional scenes: Tony Cunningham (United States)

Symposium: Adolescent sleep and mental health: From challenges to solutions

Chairs: Shirley Xin Li (Hong Kong), Michael Gradisar (Sweden) • Duration: 92 Minutes

This symposium examines how poor sleep affects adolescent mental health, cognition, and school performance. Researchers from Taiwan, Norway, China, and Hong Kong will present findings on sleep quality, insomnia subtypes, anxiety, and interventions such as motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. The session aims to highlight both the challenges adolescents face and practical strategies to improve sleep and well-being.

Presentations

• Caught between books and beds: The impact of sleep deprivation and sleep disturbance on Taiwanese adolescents' mental health: Ya-wen Jan (Taiwan)
• Adolescent sleep and implications for school performance and mental health - Results from a Norwegian cohort of older adolescents: Ingvild West Saxvig (Norway)
• New subtypes of insomnia and their association with mental health in children and adolescents: Guanghai Wang (China)
• Late owl phenomenon and sleep deprivation in adolescents: is advancing bedtime effective: Sijing Chen (Hong Kong)
• Comorbid insomnia and anxiety in youth- Shall we tackle sleep or anxiety problem in treatment: Xiao Li (Hong Kong)

Symposium: Consumer sleep technology - Usefulness and reliability for patients and practitioners

Chair: Walter McNicholas (Ireland) • Duration: 91 Minutes

This symposium explores the growing use of consumer sleep technologies (CSTs), such as wearables and sleep apps, in monitoring and managing sleep problems. While CSTs offer accessible alternatives to traditional sleep medicine, concerns remain about their accuracy, validation, and commercial bias. Experts from multiple countries will discuss the benefits, risks, patient perspectives, new innovations, and challenges of integrating CSTs into sleep care.

Presentations

• Overviewing the current use of consumer sleep technologies by both the patients and healthcare professionals: Walter McNicholas (Ireland)
• How patients perceive and use consumer sleep technology: Michael Grandner (United States)
• Innovations on consumer sleep technology for sleep tracking and scoring: Erna Sif Arnardottir (Iceland)
• Innovations on consumer sleep technology for the sleep-disordered breathing: Timo Leppanen (Finland)
• Sponsorship bias and lack of validation- Exploring the negative effects of commercial aspects on the validation of consumer sleep technologies: Gabriel Natan Pires (Brazil)

Symposium: Novel developments in psychotherapy for insomnia

Chairs: Elisabeth Hertenstein (Switzerland), Kai Spiegelhalder (Germany) • Duration:93 Minutes

This symposium focuses on improving treatment for chronic insomnia beyond standard CBT-I. Researchers will present innovations such as app-based CBT-I with wearable feedback, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT-I) for patients who do not respond to CBT-I, brief bedtime-restriction therapy, and internet-based stepped-care approaches to expand access and improve effectiveness of insomnia treatment.

Presentations

• NEW SLEEP: using accurate and daily sleep feedback in home environments in order to improve sleep: Manuel Schabus (Austria)
• Acceptance and commitment therapy versus cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: Outcomes from a RCT and predictors of treatment response: Renatha El-Rafihi Ferreira (Brazil)
• Addressing non-response and improving implementation as primary challenges for the future oh psychotherapy for insomnia: Elisabeth Hertenstein (Switzerland)
• Implementing CBT-I in routine clinical care using a stepped care model: A randomized controlled trial: Kai Spiegelhalder (Germany)

Symposium: Targeting sleep disturbances in mental disorders: Does it make the difference?

Chair: Pierre Alexis Geoffroy (France) • Duration: 97 Minutes

This symposium examines how sleep disturbances contribute to mental health disorders by affecting brain plasticity and stress regulation. Experts will discuss sleep and circadian disruptions in psychosis, the role of nightmares, insomnia treatments including orexin-targeting medications, and whether improving sleep can reduce suicide risk. The session highlights emerging approaches linking sleep treatment with better mental health outcomes.

Presentations

• Sleep and circadian rhythm disturbance in psychosis, does targeting sleep and circadian function improve outcomes: Nicholas Meyer (United Kingdom)
• A "wake up call" for nightmares in adults: Management and implications for mental health: Pierre Alexis Geoffroy (France)
• Treating insomnia comorbid with mood and anxiety disorders: Data on CBT-I and pharmacological treatments: Laura Palagini (Italy)
• Reducing suicidality through insomnia treatment is it possible: Vaughn McCall (United States)

Oral Abstract: Psychiatric disorders affecting wake/sleep

Chairs: Joey Chan (Hong Kong), K Mathu Prathibha (India) • Duration: 74 Minutes

Summary
This session explores the relationship between sleep and mental health across a range of conditions and treatments. Topics include the impact of insomnia, sleep disturbances in young adults and schizophrenia, sleep problems during morphine withdrawal, and the role of sleep in PTSD severity. It also examines emerging treatment approaches, including orexin antagonists and EEG markers predicting ketamine treatment response.

Presentations:

• Impact of insomnia symptoms on the clinical outcomes among patients with major depressive disorder and eveningness- results from a randomized controlled trial: Joey Chan (Hong Kong)
• Sleep and mental disorders in young adults: A national prospective diagnostic study: Borge Sivertsen (Norway)
• A PVTD2R-CeA circuit underlies sleep disturbance and negative effects induced by morphine withdrawal: Wenjun Chen (China)
• Effects of a dual orexin-receptor antagonist on sleep architecture and opioid withdrawal severity during buprenorphine taper: Andrew Huhn (United States)
• Sleep profiles in schizophrenia inpatients :A cross-sectional study of clinical and genetic associations: Kseniia Gasenko (Russian Federation)
• Pre-infusion EEG vigilance dynamics as predictive indicators of ketamine response in major depression: A placebo-controlled study: Martin Brunovsky (Czech Republic)
• Sleep and PTSD symptom severity in military personnel: Insights from multi-night ecological recordings: Emeric Saguin (France)

ASSM 2025 Meeting: Advancing Sleep Health in Asia

The Asian Society of Sleep Medicine (ASSM) 2025 Scientific Meeting was held as an integral component of World Sleep 2025, the 18th World Sleep Congress, in Singapore on September 6-7, 2025. As the official host society for World Sleep 2025, ASSM organized a comprehensive two-day program featuring keynote presentations, symposia, oral and poster abstract presentations, and specialized workshops focused on advancing sleep medicine and research across Asia.

The ASSM meeting program complemented the main World Sleep Congress (September 8-10, 2025) by providing focused sessions on regional sleep health challenges and fostering international exchange and knowledge transfer specific to Asian populations. This collaboration between ASSM and the World Sleep Society represents a unified effort to promote sleep health awareness and advance clinical practice globally while addressing the unique needs of the Asian sleep medicine community.

Organizing Committee

Program Committee

Abstracts

The ASSM 2025 meeting featured presentations covering multiple oral and poster abstract sessions across diverse topics in sleep medicine, including:

• Sleep-disordered breathing and obstructive sleep apnea
• Narcolepsy and hypersomnolence disorders
• Insomnia and sleep health
• Pediatric sleep medicine
• Circadian rhythm disorders
• Sleep and neurodegenerative diseases
• Dental sleep medicine and bruxism
• Sleep technology and AI applications

Download Abstract Booklet

View the World Sleep 2025 supplement in Sleep Medicine 

To access the session recording, navigate to the content tab and click the view video button. 

Session Schedule

Find a specific presentation in the course by navigating to the timestamp indicated below.

0:00:00
Introduction: The phenotypic clinical diversity of RLS
Diego Garcia-Borreguero (Spain)

0:32:20
Pediatric RLS phenotypes: Early onset and unique challenges
Gulcin Benbir Senel (Turkey)

1:00:05
Adult RLS phenotypes: Clinical variability in adulthood
Claudia Trenkwalder (Germany)

Genetic insights into RLS: Shared variants and comorbidities
Arthur Walters (United States)

Summary

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) encompasses a diverse spectrum of clinical presentations, each with unique implications for diagnosis, management, and research. This symposium will explore the proposed distinct phenotypes of RLS, highlighting shared genetic underpinnings, clinical manifestations, and treatment challenges. Experts in the field will discuss the current understanding of these phenotypes and identify areas for future research and therapeutic advancements.
The first presentation will provide a comprehensive overview of these diverse clinical profiles, setting the stage for deeper exploration in subsequent talks. It will highlight the variability in symptom frequency and severity, drawing on findings from recent clinical studies and patient-reported outcomes. Attendees will gain a foundational understanding of the phenotypic spectrum of RLS symptoms, equipping them with the knowledge to contextualize more specific discussions on subtypes, comorbidities, and management strategies. Also, the rationale for selection of different therapies across phenotypes will be outlined and discussed.
The second presentation will provide a detailed review of pediatric RLS phenotypes, drawing from contemporary literature to explore how RLS presents differently in children compared to adults. The talk will highlight the often subtle and atypical symptoms in children, including behavioral manifestations such as restlessness, inattention, or sleep resistance, which can mimic conditions like ADHD. The role of iron deficiency, developmental changes, and familial predisposition as key factors influencing pediatric RLS will be presented . Additionally, the overlap between RLS and other pediatric sleep disorders will be discussed, such as periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), and the importance of early diagnosis to prevent long-term consequences on sleep and neurocognitive development.
The third speaker will provide a comprehensive review of adult RLS phenotypes, drawing from the latest literature to explore the variability in clinical presentations, relationship with insomnia, cardiovascular disorders, and mood disorders, among other comorbidities that contribute to symptom severity and progression. This talk with present the findings from adult RLS literature and discuss the implications for personalized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in clinical practice.
Finally, the symposium will explore the genetic underpinnings of these associations, presenting findings from two innovative studies leveraging Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) and Phenome-Wide Association Studies (PheWAS). The first study identifies 365 genetic variants associated with RLS, including significant overlap with hypertension, insomnia, ADHD, and circadian rhythm disturbances, providing insights into shared genetic susceptibilities. The second study extends these findings by replicating RLS associations for 84 variants and identifying additional links with conditions like thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes. Together, these studies demonstrate the utility of GWAS and PheWAS approaches in unraveling the genetic architecture of RLS and its frequent co-occurrence with other medical conditions. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how shared genetic pathways may inform future diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for RLS and its comorbidities.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this CME activity, participants will be able to:
• Gain an understanding of the phenotypic spectrum of RLS symptoms, equipping them with the knowledge to contextualize more specific discussions on subtypes, comorbidities, and management
• Recognize that RLS manifests with unique presentations in pediatric populations. It will highlight the often subtle and atypical symptoms in children, including behavioral manifestations such as restlessness, inattention, or sleep resistance, which can mimic conditions like ADHD. It will emphasize the role of iron deficiency, developmental changes, and familial predisposition
• Demonstrate that RLS exhibits diverse phenotypes in adulthood, as influenced by age, gender, and environmental factors. The talk will provide a comprehensive review of RLS phenotypes, drawing from the latest literature to explore the variability in clinical presentations, relationship with insomnia, cardiovascular and mood disorders, and contribute to symptom severity and progression
• Describe findings from two studies on GWAS and PheWAS. While the first study identified 365 genetic variants associated with RLS, including significant overlap with hypertension, insomnia, ADHD, and circadian disturbances, the second replicated associations for 84 variants and identified additional links with thyroid disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes

Industry Session presented at World Sleep 2025 in Singapore.

Managing insomnia disorder in patients with neurological and psychiatric comorbidities

The impact of insomnia disorder for patients
David Neubauer
United States

New clinical data on daridorexant for managing insomnia disorder
Atul Khullar
Canada

Clinical experience managing insomnia disorder in patients with psychiatric comorbidities
Laura Palagini
Italy

Clinical experience managing insomnia disorder in patients with neurological comorbidities
Claudio Liguori
Italy

Supported by Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

After registering for the bundle, navigate to the Content tab and activate sessions of interest to add them to your dashboard.

This free bundle gives you access to the following sessions from World Sleep 2025 in Singapore:

Keynotes

• K-01: Thomas Penzel: Innovations in sleep technology: Advancing diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders
• K-08: Célyne Bastien: Sleep misperception: A waking perspective
• K-12: Joshua J. Gooley: The hard facts supporting later learning start times

Symposia

• S-04: WSS Task Force recommendations for use of consumer health trackers for sleep tracking
• S-07: Hypersomnolence in focus: Orexin as the key to treating comorbidities and secondary diseases?
• S-12: Narcolepsy: Examining the science, impact, and current unmet needs
• S-13: World Health Organization report on road safety: Pathway to global professional driver work hours regulations
• S-18: iRBD biomarkers through the lens of young scientists: What do we have and what do we need?
• S-25: Open data and open science in sleep medicine and sleep research
• S-40: Best of SLEEP MEDICINE – Journal Highlights 2025
• S-69: Discussion group: Global perspectives on sleep health advocacy: Insights and experiences across five continents
• S-85: Consumer sleep technology: Usefulness and reliability for patients and practitioners
• S-120: Sleep and long COVID: From epidemiology to future prevention on behalf of Second International COVID-19 Sleep Study (ICOSS-II) group

Oral Abstract Sessions

• O-02: Orexin-based therapies and pharmacological advances in narcolepsy
• O-04: Basic Science: Sleep deprivation and sleep disorder
• O-09: Targeting the orexin pathway: Emerging pharmacotherapies for narcolepsy type 1
• O-10: Novel approaches to treating insomnia
• O-13: New sensing or signal analysis methods in sleep
• O-19: New Investigator Award
• O-30: Sleep and public health: Stress, climate, and community

Courses

• C-23 Navigating your research career: Skill development and career advice for early and mid-career researchers

Industry Sessions

• Bayer: Sleep disturbance across menopause - innovations in measurement and treatment
• Narcolepsy Group Workshop with Takeda
• Nox Medical: Precision Breathing: Advancing Sleep Apnea Phenotyping Through Accurate Flow Measurement
• ProSomnus: Beyond Mandibular Advancement: Science, Innovation and Outcomes
• Resmed: OSA Underdiagnosis- A world of difference, a common challenge
• Idorsia: Managing insomnia disorder in patients with neurological and psychiatric comorbidities

Industry Session presented at World Sleep 2025 in Singapore.

Industry Session presented at World Sleep 2025 in Singapore.