Research Award Program

The Hypersomnia Foundation (HF) is pleased to present our Research Award Program. We offer research award funding to support medical students, physician residents and fellows, postdoctoral fellows, and other researchers studying non-cataplectic hypersomnias (e.g., IH, NT2 and KLS).

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis to support various projects. Awardees will be expected to produce a written summary of their findings at the conclusion of the funding period. The Hypersomnia Foundation is hopeful that these research awards will help to unlock the mysteries of IH.

The main goals of our Research Award Program are twofold:

1. Focus on research in areas that the non-cataplectic hypersomnia community has determined to be of the highest priority;
2. Fund research that, if successful, has the potential to form the basis for significant NIH or other large research grant applications.

Patient-centered research surveys and discussions with the global hypersomnia research community have identified the following research priorities:

1. We have a very poor understanding of the non-cataplectic hypersomnias. A major hurdle is defining the disease or diseases. A key objective is to get beyond the current diagnosis of exclusion and develop clear boundaries between the different phenotypes.
2. We strongly suspect that there are multiple underlying causes of non-cataplectic hypersomnias. Research to explore new theories of etiology are of great interest.
3. Lack of biomarkers, measurements of functionality, and quantitative assessment tools present significant barriers to success in research, drug development and diagnostics. New approaches to measuring both the quantity and quality of both sleep and wake are sorely needed. Of particular concern to people with hypersomnias is understanding the impact of sleep disorders on cognition and the accurate measurement of disrupted sleep and extended sleep.
4. People with non-cataplectic hypersomnias respond with great variability to currently available medications. As we can’t currently predict which people will respond best to which medications, we must take a “trial and error” approach and test multiple medications before finding the best therapy. There is a need for precision medicine that will predict the best medication for each person.