Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced important bills that provide crucial funding for sleep research and key guidance on establishing a coordinated sleep health and sleep disorders awareness initiative at HHS in the future. This is exciting news and huge thanks to this community’s advocacy.
Of specific interest to the sleep community, the Committee’s FY26 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (L-HHS) bill included the following recommendations:
Sleep Health and Sleep Disorders.—The Committee is concerned with the troubling lack of coordinated efforts in public health to improve sleep health and disorder awareness, diagnosis, and treatment despite landmark scientific discoveries demonstrating the significant impact of sleep on disease and mental and physical health and wellness. The Committee encourages CDC to expand activities to improve sleep health and sleep disorders awareness, epidemiology, detection, and care particularly for rare and orphan sleep disorders, like narcolepsy, and requests that CDC provide an update on these activities in the fiscal year 2027 CJ.”
Sleep Disorders.—The Committee notes the lack of dedicated sleep health and sleep disorders activities across HHS despite the number of Americans affected, the economic cost and burden of illness, and the connection between sleep and serious chronic diseases, including obesity and heart disease. HHS is encouraged to establish a coordinating effort to promote sleep health and provider education and awareness of sleep disorders.”
Project Sleep is thrilled to see that the Senate’s L-HHS bill increases funding for NIH while maintaining funding for many other agencies and programs, and rejects the administration’s request to move, eliminate, reduce, or reorganize various funding lines. Further, the Defense bill maintains support for DoD research activities including the Peer-Reviewed Medical Research Program which includes “sleep disorders and restriction” as eligible research areas.
The fact that the bill contains guidance on establishing and enhancing HHS’ sleep activities is thanks to you — sleep advocates across the country who played a key role in ensuring that the priorities of the sleep community were not forgotten during this appropriations process. By taking action this spring and reaching out to your Representative to share your stories and why sleep is so critical to health, you helped us take this cause to the next level. Special thanks to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and her office for championing this cause and the remarkable bipartisan 28 additional members of the House of Representatives who co-signed the important sleep letter that was sent to the Appropriation Committee.
These bills should go to the Senate floor for approval in the coming months. The House might mark up their own bill in September. We will continue working to ensure the final bill has the highest possible funding levels for research and public health programs focused on sleep.
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