Pediatric sleep medicine: growing up as a field

To the Editors, We congratulate Drs. Reynolds and esteemed colleagues for providing a much-needed White Paper addressing the academic field of pediatric sleep medicine [1]. The authors discuss current knowledge and important gaps in our understanding of sleep in children, and a practical roadmap for investigations into pediatric sleep disorders for the next 10 years is proposed. Researchers and practitioners of pediatric sleep medicine have been few in comparison to those with adult sleep medicine focus. Indeed, development of pediatric sleep and circadian medicine has closely paralleled the genesis of pediatrics as a medical specialty. Need for this White Paper briefly presenting state of the art and future directions have been clear. Various aspects of the field are explored in detail, including epidemiology, circadian rhythm, insufficient sleep, cardiometabolic sequelae, clinical sleep disorders, and public health. The direct and conversational forward by a pioneer in the field, Dr. Carskadon, is of value to all.