Classification of sleep disorders

Sleep disorders have had a formal classification since 1979, when the Association of Sleep Disorder Centers published the Classification of Sleep and Arousal Disorders in the journal Sleep. In 2013, the revised version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V) included a section entitled “Sleep Wake Disorders,” an update of the DSM-IV section (Table 1.1). This produced a classification for mental health and general medical clinicians who are not experts in sleep medicine. The classification differs from that of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3) that was produced by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and updated in 2014 (Table 1.2). The presence of two current competing classifications is not ideal, as it can cause confusion with health insurance companies and for epidemiological research. The International Classification of Diseases modified version-the ICD-10-CM (Table 1.3)-will be adopted in the United States in 2016 and contains a classification that more closely conforms to the ICSD-3.