The National Sleep Foundation (NSF) has announced that Dr. Stephen H. Sheldon, DO, FAAP is the 2025 recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, the organization’s highest honor recognizing sustained and exemplary leadership in advancing sleep health and medicine.
The NSF Lifetime Achievement Award honors individuals who have demonstrated significant contributions to the field of sleep health through research, clinical leadership, education or public health advocacy, and who have strongly supported the NSF’s mission to improve health and well-being through sleep education and advocacy About the National Sleep Foundation.
The National Sleep Foundation, founded in 1990, is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health and well-being through sleep education, advocacy and research. The NSF promotes sleep health through expert recommendations, consensus guidelines, public outreach and educational tools, contributing to both clinical practice and general public knowledge about the importance of sleep.
Dr. Stephen H. Sheldon is a Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics (Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine) at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, with a career spanning decades in the field of sleep medicine. He served for more than 30 years as Director of Sleep Medicine at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where he played a key role in training sleep medicine specialists and advocating for the recognition, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in children.
Dr. Sheldon earned the first certificate of special qualification in pediatric sleep medicine from the American Board of Pediatrics and helped establish the certification criteria for pediatric sleep specialists. He has also served as a consultant on pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) for the American Dental Association and chaired the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation’s Development Council, contributing to professional standards in sleep medicine.
In addition to clinical leadership, Dr. Sheldon has been heavily involved in sleep medicine scholarship:
He has authored and contributed to numerous scientific publications related to pediatric sleep and disorders affecting sleep.
For more than 20 years, since its first edition in 2005, Dr. Sheldon has been an editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Sleep Medicine, a key reference text in the field.
He has served as an associate editor for the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to research on sleep and its disorders.
Dr. Sheldon is also noted for his service to the NSF itself:
He served on the NSF Board of Directors from 2013 to 2020, including leading the Education and Continuing Medical Education (CME) Committees.
He designed the NSF’s pediatric OSA anatomical model, a tool used to educate clinicians and the public about sleep-related breathing disorders in children.
Dr. Sheldon played an instrumental role in developing NSF’s Adolescent Sleep Health Recommendations, a set of guidance tailored to support healthy sleep patterns among youth (pending publication).
Sleep medicine is a medical specialty focused on diagnosing and treating sleep disorders that can affect both children and adults, including obstructive sleep apnea, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, and circadian rhythm disorders. Disruptions in sleep are linked to a range of health issues, including impaired cognitive function, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and reduced quality of life.
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