§285b–7 National Center on Sleep Disorders Research

Summary

Within 1 year after June 10, 1993, the Director of the Institute must set up the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research and name a director to run it. The Center must support and carry out research, training, public health information, and other work about sleep and sleep disorders, including basic sleep science and circadian rhythm studies. It must also coordinate its work with other federal agencies, other parts of the National Institutes of Health, and with public and nonprofit groups. The Director of the National Institutes of Health must create a Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board to advise the NIH Director (through the Institute and the Center) on the Center’s science and policies and on a research plan. The NIH Director will appoint 12 public members (eight from health or science fields related to sleep and four who represent people with sleep disorders). Ten officials will serve as ex officio members: the Director of the NIH; the Director of the Center; the Directors of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Mental Health; the National Institute on Aging; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; the Assistant Secretary for Health; the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs); and the Chief Medical Director of the Veterans’ Administration. The board picks its own chair and follows the rules that apply to similar advisory councils under section 284a when those rules fit. After consulting the Center and the board, the NIH Director must make and update a comprehensive research plan that sets priorities and coordinates NIH sleep research. The Center Director, working with the CDC, may also work with the Departments of Transportation, Defense, Education, Labor, and Commerce to collect data, run studies, and share public information about the effects of sleep disorders and sleep deprivation.