The AASM Foundation is committed to improving patient-centered diagnosis and care for all people with sleep disorders. To ensure that there is a continued advancement in effective diagnosis and care of people with sleep disorders, the AASM Foundation provides research funding through the Strategic Research Grant. This grant is investigator-initiated and supports high-impact research projects aimed at addressing gaps in knowledge that impact the ability to provide optimal, patient-centered, cost-effective diagnosis and care for people with sleep disorders.

AASM Clinical Practice Guidelines: Research Gaps & Dissemination and Implementation

Open to projects that 1) directly address research gaps identified in American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) clinical practice guidelines, and/or 2) focus on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based practice recommendations from AASM clinical practice guidelines to ensure that they are effectively disseminated and adopted across various patient populations that sleep practitioners serve.

The following recently published practice guidelines are listed as examples of topics that are considered responsive:

• Treatment of central disorders of hypersomnolence: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline and accompanying Treatment of central disorders of hypersomnolence: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment
  • This topic is co-sponsored by the Hypersomnia Foundation, Wake Up Narcolepsy and the AASM Foundation
• Treatment of restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline and accompanying Treatment of restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movement disorder: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment (January 2025)
• Treatment of central sleep apnea in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline and accompanying Treatment of central sleep apnea in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment
• Evaluation and management of obstructive sleep apnea in adults hospitalized for medical care: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline and accompanying Evaluation and management of obstructive sleep apnea in adults hospitalized for medical care: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine systematic review, meta-analysis, and GRADE assessment

Considering health equity is important for all research focus areas. We encourage applicants to consider factors that increase sleep healthcare equity, such as access to services, social factors, and using an appropriately inclusive study population.

AASM Strategic Plan Goals

Open to projects that directly advance the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) Strategic Plan Goals: Sleep Medicine Awareness, Practice Success, and Technology Implementation.

Projects that use, study, or expand AASM sleep education resources, AASM Sleep is Good Medicine campaign, AASM quality measures, #sleeptechnology, AASM guidance documents, or results from AASM Foundation-funded projects will be given priority.

Proposals that fit into one of the goals are considered responsive. The bulleted lists under each goal are listed as examples.

1. Sleep Medicine Awareness – Advance the understanding of the value of sleep medicine. Examples of projects that fall under this strategic goal include, but are not limited to:

• Developing strategies that build awareness about how sleep disturbances and sleep disorders cause or are associated with other health conditions.
• Understanding the impact of screening for sleep disorders by non-sleep clinicians.
• Evaluating the economic impact of treating sleep disorders on long-term healthcare utilization.

1. Practice Success – Enhance knowledge about how to deliver quality, innovate care to achieve better outcomes for patients with sleep disorders. Examples of projects that fall under this strategic goal include, but are not limited to:

• Developing and testing comprehensive and innovative models of care that use a team-based approach for long-term care and management of people with sleep disorders.
• Evaluating the value of services provided by sleep physicians and the sleep team (e.g., economic modeling, retrospective analysis of claims or electronic health record data) and/or assessing how their roles in patient care may evolve in the future.
• Studies that improve patient-centeredness of care by improving the understanding of:
  • Patient preferences and satisfaction with different treatment options for sleep disorders.
  • Predictors of treatment adherence.
• Comparative effectiveness research, especially in special populations (e.g., pediatrics, women, older adults, people with comorbidities), of:
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  • Diagnosis of sleep disorders (e.g., new diagnostic devices, delivery methods, alternate metrics for diagnosis or characterization of disease severity, endotyping)
  • Interventions and delivery methods to treat sleep disorders.
  • Interventions (e.g., technology, behavioral, psychological, pharmacologic) to improve sleep disorder treatment adherence.

1. Technology Implementation – Increase knowledge of new and emerging technologies, as well as artificial intelligence, in clinical care. Examples of projects that fall under this strategic goal include, but are not limited to:

• Evaluating current and new technology for expanding delivery of sleep care to improve patient outcomes, quality of care, and cost-effectiveness.
• Leveraging consumer wearables for promoting and improving sleep in patients, increasing engagement with the sleep team, monitoring and improving patient care and treatment adherence.
• Harnessing large datasets and computing power to yield greater clinical sleep insights, augment clinical expert opinion of sleep data, enhance diagnostic abilities, patient care, and/or treatment, increase efficiency, or decrease administrative burden.
• Clinical research on heterogeneous populations comparing artificial intelligence to traditional approaches.

This topic is co-sponsored by the Hypersomnia Foundation, Wake Up Narcolepsy and the AASM Foundation.

Considering health equity is important for all research focus areas. We encourage applicants to consider factors that increase sleep healthcare equity, such as access to services, social factors, and using an appropriately inclusive study population.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) Research Gaps

Open to projects that address known research gaps in the diagnosis and/or management of OSA. There have been several publications that have noted the limitations, challenges, and gaps in research with diagnosing and treating OSA, examples of which include the 2022 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Technology Assessment on positive airway pressure therapy and the 2021 journal SLEEP publication on apnea-hypopnea index. Projects that address these gaps must advance the fields of sleep medicine and population sleep health. Only applications that address known research gaps in the diagnosis and/or treatment of OSA will be considered responsive.

Priority will be given to projects that propose following outcomes for 6 months or longer. Examples of research topics of interest are provided below.

• Identifying patient-important outcomes and understanding how they are impacted with treatment (e.g., sleepiness, quality of life).
• Exploring novel ways to characterize OSA (e.g., new/alternative measures, new framework combining multiple measures).
• Building knowledge about personalized OSA care through endotyping, phenotyping, and biomarkers (e.g., identifying patients at most risk of clinically important OSA outcomes).
• Understanding patient preferences and satisfaction with different OSA treatment options.
• Understanding the short-term and long-term impact on outcomes of newer treatments for OSA (e.g. devices, medications, lifestyle changes, surgery).
• Understanding OSA treatment adherence (e.g., barrier to adherence, how adherence relates to outcomes, strategies to address barriers, predictors of adherence to treatment).
• Comparative effectiveness research, especially in special populations (e.g., pediatrics, women, older adults, people with comorbidities), of:
  • Alternate metrics for diagnosis or characterization of OSA severity
  • Interventions and delivery methods to treat OSA.
  • Interventions (e.g., technology, behavioral, psychological, pharmacologic) to improve OSA treatment adherence.

Considering health equity is important for all research focus areas. We encourage applicants to consider factors that increase sleep healthcare equity, such as access to services, social factors, and using an appropriately inclusive study population.

AI Based Application Success Predictor

Based on the expectations of a medical-specialty foundation plus what tends to work in sleep-medicine funding contexts, successful AASM applications typically show the following features:

1. Direct Relevance to Sleep Medicine / Sleep Disorders / Sleep Health

Projects must address a clear sleep-related question: e.g. sleep disorders (insomnia, apnea, circadian disorders, restless legs, narcolepsy), sleep’s effect on health (cardiovascular, neurocognitive, metabolism), diagnostics or therapeutics in sleep medicine, quality of care or access — not peripheral topics.

Clinical relevance or translational potential — bridging bench, clinic, or population — is strongly favored.

Predictor: The tighter and more explicit the sleep-medicine focus, the better.

2. Feasible, Well-Defined Aims (Given Limited / Pilot-Grant Funding)

Since many AASM Foundation grants are relatively small or intended as seed/pilot funding:

Proposals should have 1–3 focused aims (not overly ambitious).

Methodology should fit within the likely timeline (often 1–2 years) and funding level.

Deliverables should be clearly specified — e.g., pilot data, feasibility metrics, preliminary outcomes, groundwork for larger funding.

Predictor: Focused, realistic, achievable studies (rather than large, multi-aim projects) tend to score higher.

3. Potential for Future Impact or Further Funding

Because AASM-supported projects often serve as stepping stones, reviewers look for:

A clear explanation how the pilot or initial study could lead to larger trials or independent funding (NIH, larger grants)— i.e. a “pathway to sustainability.”

Translational value: potential for improved patient care, diagnostics, health-service interventions, or guiding larger epidemiological/clinical studies in sleep.

Predictor: Demonstrated future potential improves competitiveness.

4. Investigator Track Record, Institutional Support & (if Early Career) Mentorship / Training Plan

For early-career applicants, having a mentor, institutional resources (sleep lab, patient access, data infrastructure), and protected time helps.

For established investigators: prior relevant work, publications, or preliminary data add credibility.

The proposal should reflect that the lab or clinical site has capacity to execute the study (staff, IRB support, patient recruitment if needed, facilities).

Predictor: Strong institutional and investigator support increases feasibility and trust in delivery.

5. Clear Methodology & Rigor — Especially for Clinical or Translational Studies

Given the complexity of sleep research (sleep recordings, patient variability, comorbidities), applications should show rigorous design:

Appropriate sample size, inclusion/exclusion criteria, control groups (if relevant)

Validated measurement tools (questionnaires, polysomnography, actigraphy, biologic assays, etc.)

If human studies: clear plan for ethics, informed consent, safety, data protection

Realistic data analysis / statistical plan

Predictor: Methodologically sound, realistic design improves scoring; vague or poorly planned methods reduce chances.

6. Clarity, Professional Writing & Logic of Proposal (Significance → Aims → Methods → Impact)

Because many reviewers may come from clinical or mixed backgrounds, clarity in writing and structured proposals help.

Significance section should clearly articulate why the study matters for sleep medicine or public health.

Aims should follow logically from background.

Methods should match the aims.

Impact or future direction should be plausible, not vague.

Predictor: Well-written, logically coherent applications stand out — especially with limited funding competition.

7. For Pilot / Early-Career Grants: Realistic Budget & Efficient Use of Funds

Given modest budget caps, funds should be allocated efficiently — e.g., data collection, participant recruitment, analysis — not expensive equipment or over-ambitious resource requests.

Justify each budget line in context of deliverables.

Predictor: Lean, justified budgets aligned with scope tend to succeed; over-budget, under-justified proposals risk being rejected.

8. Relevance to Broader Sleep-Medicine Field or Public Health

Applications that:

Address major burden (e.g. sleep apnea, insomnia, sleep and chronic disease, underserved populations)

Offer potential for improved clinical guidelines, new diagnostics, better access, or public-health benefit

Include population-based, epidemiologic, or health-services research

often get prioritized over narrow “academic-only” basic science.

Predictor: Public-health relevance and scalability strengthens proposal value.

🎯 What This Means — If You Plan to Apply to AASM Foundation

If you plan to submit an application to AASM Foundation, you should:

Make sure your research question is directly about sleep medicine or sleep-related health.

Focus on realistic, modest-scope aims suitable for pilot/foundation funding.

Show how your project can lead to future work (clinical trials, larger studies, external funding).

Ensure you have institutional infrastructure and investigator support, facilities or patient access if needed.

Build a rigorous, clear methodological plan, with ethics in place if human subjects.

Use a lean, justified budget, aligned with expected deliverables.

Write a clear, logically structured proposal with compelling significance and potential impact.