The ISSTA Celebrates Its First Anniversary

TAIPEI, TAIWAN--(Marketwired - May 28, 2013) - The ISSTA (International Sleep Science Technology Association), established in Berlin in 2012, celebrated its first anniversary this month. Tony Hu, honorary president of the ISSTA, pinpoints the group's foremost mission as pooling medical specialists to focus on R&D on sleep science and technology. Equally important is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration toward helping people improve sleep, thereby promoting their health, work performance and quality of living.

What precautions should one take to keep away one kind of flu or another, a common health risk when seasons change? Doctors and somnologists believe the best and simplest strategy is to sleep well and rest enough: one can thus enhance immunity and stay in good shape.

Experts with the ISSTA caution that lack of sleep quality and time tends to undermine people's capacity for coping with everyday chores and even cause chronic diseases. In the worst-case scenario, sleep -- or the lack of it -- may be to blame for major accidents, sometimes fatal.

Arianna Huffington, who founded the news website The Huffington Post and sits on the ISSTA's Advisory Board, has precisely such a personal tale to tell. And she has told it on more than one occasion: one day several years ago she passed out from exhaustion and banged her head, the result of which was a broken cheekbone and five stitches under her eyebrow. It was also a wake-up call for her to promote sleep medicine and technology ever since.

"Health starts with sleep," Hu says. "The ISSTA aims to awaken people to the value of sleep and help them understand the importance of sleep science and technology."

The ISSTA played host to the Sleep Technology Industry Forum in Taipei on March 18, 2013. Dr. Chiang Ping-Ying, one of Taiwan's leading pioneer somnologists and secretary general of the ISSTA, briefed more than 300 participants from a great variety of industries on the latest developments in the sleep science and technology sector. Keynote speakers included Hans P.A. Van Dongen, research professor at the Washington State University at Spokane and a widely recognized scientist in the area of sleep and performance, and Sharon Keenan, director of Stanford University's School of Sleep Medicine.

Hu says that the ISSTA is committed to working with nonmedical specialists in such areas as engineering, industrial design, law, business administration, and recreation and travel to broaden the applications of sleep science and technology. This in turn should be able to foster the birth of an innovative sleep science and technology industry with the potential to capitalize on a fast-growing world market.

About ISSTA
Sleep medicine will advance not only through incremental improvements of traditional sleep technology which focuses on the utilization of polysomnography for the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders, but also on how new and emerging technologies can assist in preventing sleep disorders, decreasing morbidity, and improving quality of sleep, daytime function and the overall quality of life. ISSTA seeks to improve healthcare and decrease morbidity and mortality by working to develop new technologies directly relevant to all aspects of sleep medicine.

If you would like to know more about ISSTA, please visit www.issta-sleep.org.