Osman Ipsiroglu
MD, FRCPC, PhD, MBA, MAS
Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Based on my interest in adherence research, socio-cultural aspects of medicine, child development and neurology I developed, in collaboration with medical anthropology and educational psychology, a comprehensive functional sleep/wake-behaviours assessment concept and began to transform physiological knowledge with questions of sleep health and management.
In collaboration with the Cognitive Systems Lab at UBC, I have developed a 'Virtual-Sleep-Lab' concept, where Videosomnography is used for screening 'visible' and 'recognizable' sleep disorders in children with neurodevelopmental and mental health disorders in their natural setting, at home. Based on this research, the Inter. RLS Consensus Group has included children with neurodevelopmental delay (NDD) in their recent Consensus Statement.
Our current research focuses on children with NDD, who often have a combination of voluntary and involuntary movements. These movements are associated with hyperactivity and hyper-/hypo-arousability in the wake state, and hypermotor-restlessness in the sleep state, all summarized as H-Behaviours. H-Behaviours occur across a spectrum of the most frequent developmental, neurologic and mental health conditions such as ADHD, Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) or Willis-Ekbom Disease, tics, Tourette syndrome, anxiety, ASD and FASD. While the H-Behaviour associated movement patterns are very well described in children with ADHD, tics and Tourette syndrome, they are less so in RLS/WED. Additionally, they have not been clearly defined across age, different symptoms and presentations.
Targeting single aspects of such behaviours with pharmacological interventions (stimulants, antidepressants, antipsychotics) increases the likelihood of adverse drug reactions — usually these children/youth are trialed with multiple psychotropic substances. In order to reduce the epidemic of psychotropic substance use, we created the Children's Right to Sleep Initiative (ChildRight2Sleep, CR2S, cr2s.org), an international clinical and technical research consortium dedicated to promoting and transforming the screening and treatment of sleep disturbances and disorders in children and adolescents. CR2S aims to equip healthcare professionals with practical, evidence-based tools to improve early diagnosis and treatment of sleep, alleviate unnecessary suffering and create brighter futures for children and their families. The CR2S inaugural conference in Vienna in May 2025 brought together experts from 12 countries, industry partners, and advocacy groups to create a 'safe space' for critical discussions and foster dialogue on how sleep is more than rest — it’s a powerful tool for preventing illness and promoting recovery. Sleep is prevention!
