SLEEP 2009 Day One Report

I've gotten through day one of the SLEEP 2009 conference...and, boy, am I tired! That's the Seattle Convention Hall, actually in an moderately UNcrowded moment.

By my count, there are more than 5,000 people here. I'll check on the stats for reals in future posts. I'm just overwhelmed here: I've learned a lot about cortisol, synaptic plasticity, adenosine, the basal forebrain and sleep, PTSD, ATP, visfatin, IgA, TCD4, and even the history of war. 

I've thought approximately 94 times in the last 12 hours, "Shoot: Why didn't I become a doctor?!" Even though I've never, ever thought that previously. (I did, however, entertain an ongoing fantasy about becoming a neonatal nurse when my son was in the NICU for three weeks. But that was the only other time.)

I'll post lots more on the research projects and doctors I talked to. But my overall impression, just a quick take: The areas where there is a lot of interest and energy in sleep research right now include sleep and post-traumatic sleep disorder, sleep and obesity, ethnicity and different sleep behaviors/expectations/clinical needs, sleep and pregnancy, post-pregnancy. Also, in general, sleep and how its deprivation or abnormality contributes to a wide range of other health programs.

bt: 10:54 wu: 6:54 2wu: 7:59 total: 8h 5m, not bad. Though sleeping in a new place is never restful for me the first night.