Report of the ANSS meeting in Poznan Poland (9-11th May 2025)
Representatives of 23 European countries gathered together in Poznan the annual meeting of the assembly of National sleep societies. Countries represented were Romania, Georgia, Spain (by zoom) ,Poland, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Latvia, Turkey , Norway, Lithuania, Slovakia, Netherlands, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, Armenia, Slovenia, Austria, Greece, Estonia, Russia (by zoom), Britain, Germany
The meeting was led by the ANSS executive committee: Pitt Young, Sarah Hartley, Morton Engstrøm, Shruthi Konda and Kiril Terziyski
The ANSS conference was hosted by the Polish Sleep Society represented by Prof. Szczepan Cofta and Dr Marcin Zarowski, who welcomed the participants to Poznań .
The meeting began with the presentation of the results of the annual survey of members presented by Pitt Young. The annual survey focused on the development of sleep medicine in Europe with particular attention two objectives defined by each country that would enable them to develop sleep medicine within their boundaries.
Following this, representatives of each sleep society presented their activities over the previous year. Participants were impressed by the breadth and variety of activities that the different sleep societies offered to their members and the support that is potentially available between sleep societies for mutual development.
At the end of the presentations, a vote was held to award prizes for the best presentation. First prize was awarded to Latvia, second prize to Portugal, and third prize to Turkey. The prize-giving ceremony was held on the last day of the conference at the closing dinner.
The meeting on Saturday was focused on the development of the upcoming bid for cost action funding. The outline of the cost action was presented by Oana Deleanu with the overall aim of improving sleep health in each country. The necessity of balancing Inclusiveness Target countries (ITCs) and non ITCs was underlined. COST actions favour diversity : countries were encouraged to put forward young researchers to participate for their coutnry and lead the action forward. With a deadline for the COST action fixed for October, a timeline was developed to ensure that the participating countries were kept informed.
Participants worked in small groups on defining objectives to improve sleep health within the country with particular attention to local action, the need for European tools and support that could be provided to other countries in the domains of sleep research and sleep medicine.
The ESRS-ANSS Award for Excellence was presented to Prof. Dr. Wojciech Jernajczyk in absentia, with a presentation by Prof. Szczepan Cofta on his contributions to sleep medicine and research, not only in Poland but across Europe.
After lunch, the ANSS met with the ESRS board to discuss the latest developments between the two societies and to hear from the ESRS about the latest updates. The interactions between the ANSS and ESRS were discussed and will be further refined in future meetings.
The ANSS-ESRS meeting was followed by meetings with our sponsors. This enabled the discussion of the latest developments in the pharmacology of hypersomnolence and the future of CPAP in the light of GLP1 agonists.
The meeting was followed by a visit to the town of Poznan and its beautiful cathedral, and closed with a meal in the old print works in central Poznan and the ANSS prize-giving ceremony.