Sleep research, quality and implementation priorities in the Veterans Health Administration: a white paper

The Veterans Affairs (VA) seeks to improve the quality of life and long-term health outcomes for veterans facing unique sleep challenges related to their military service. The prevalence and burden of sleep disorders among military service members and veterans are alarmingly high, often worsened by inadequate sleep environments, insufficient sleep, shift work, and exposure to trauma. VA’s National Sleep Medicine Program Office has outlined key priorities for enhancing sleep medicine research and quality improvement. These recommendations reflect the consensus within the Sleep Research and Quality Improvement Subcommittee of the Field Advisory Board for the Sleep Medicine Program Office. These priorities include advancing sleep science at basic, clinical, and population levels; promoting sleep health through personalized treatment strategies tailored to veterans; increasing funding for sleep research; establishing a network of VA sleep research centers to conduct high-quality, multicenter, collaborative studies; developing a veteran-specific portfolio of sleep research and innovations; and optimizing the dissemination of diagnostic tools and therapies through quality improvement initiatives. VA aims to achieve these goals through a series of strategic objectives and milestones that consider importance, timeline, effort, and cost. Specific topics of interest are highlighted and investigators are encouraged to address knowledge gaps in these areas. This white paper seeks to strengthen sleep research within VA by developing a comprehensive pipeline of researchers and systematically evaluating strategies to improve sleep health care for veterans. The ultimate goal is to generate actionable insights that could potentially influence broader sleep-related clinical guidelines and policies within and beyond the VA health care system.