SLEEP 2026 | Addressing unmet needs in pediatric sleep care

Honestly, there’s not a lot of advances in pediatric sleep because it seems like how it goes in medicine is concepts and treatment options are always trialed in adults and it’s not until years later that these are trialed or addressed in children. So I think the SURMOUNT study and the SURMOUNT-OSA for the GLP-1s have been out there for a couple of years. But we have not had any published trials as far as the kids go. And I think, you know, it’s still ongoing. And as far as sleep medicine is concerned, likewise, a lot of the trials and the concepts are kind of lacking in sleep medicine because they are trialed in adults first. So there’s a lot more research needed in kids, not only about sleep problems in general, sleep treatments or interventions in general, but also interventions that address both obesity and sleep. And I’d also like to point out, you know, in sleep medicine, we are heavily focused with, you know, diagnosing and treating sleep apnea. But circadian rhythm disorders are a significant group of disorders both in adults and especially in children. Because as we know, in children, there’s delayed sleep phase or circadian dysregulation at the onset of puberty. And sometimes that would drive obesity as well. I think most of the trials, especially randomized controlled trials, are focusing mainly on OSA and insomnia. And as far as insomnia is concerned, I think more in the space of CBTI and apps for addressing CBTI. But, you know, attending the conference today and hearing the speakers, everybody would always end their topic or their session by saying we need more research in pediatrics.

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