About ESRS

What We Do

Sleep Advocates of Europe

The European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) is an international scientific non-profit organisation that aims to:
  • promote all aspects of sleep research and sleep medicine
  • improve the care for patients with sleep disorders
  • facilitate the dissemination of information regarding sleep research and sleep medicine
In order to fulfil this mission, we:

The ESRS aims to integrate all important European players with an interest in sleep research and sleep medicine at the basic and medical, as well as graduate and postgraduate level, including individual researchers, National sleep societies, and patient organisations.

The goal of the ESRS is to establish sleep medicine as an acknowledged medical specialty.

Who We Are

The leadership and membership of the ESRS represents more than 2.000 individual members who are scientists, researchers, students and medical practitioners, as well as representatives of corporate and academic institutions, who all have an interest in sleep research and sleep medicine.

The ESRS also brings together 31 national sleep societies across Europe, as well as networks and external societies, bridging the gap between sleep and other fields of medicine. ESRS is also a proud partner of Sleep Revolution.

ESRS Bylaws

Articles of Association of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) e. V.

  1. The society which is to be registered in the association register has the name “European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) e. V.”
  2. The society has its registered office in Regensburg.
  3. The fiscal year of the society is the calendar year.

ESRS Flagship Projects

ESRS History

The idea of a European sleep society germinated during an international sleep symposium, “Die Natur des Schlafes / The Nature of Sleep”, which was organised by U. J. Jovanović and held in Würzburg 1971. Prof. Werner P. Koella (Basel) was charged with the task of organising a sleep congress and preparing the foundation of a sleep society.  A founding committee, including Drs. Walter Baust (Düsseldorf),  Claude Gottesmann (Nice), Uroš J. Jovanović (Würzburg), Werner P. Koella (Chairman), Ian Oswald (Edinburgh) and Liviu Popoviciu, was established.

The late Professor W.R. Hess, the most eminent Swiss Sleep Researcher, agreed to act as the Honorary President of the First Sleep Congress.