Meir H. Kryger

Meir Kryger loves to write! He loves to write books and posts for the public, and for doctors. He loves to teach. He is currently professor, Yale University School of Medicine. Previously he was the Director of the Sleep Disorders Centre at St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre, the first laboratory studying patients with sleep breathing problems in Canada. Kryger is the chief editor of the main textbook used in sleep medicine, The Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, which is currently in its sixth edition. He is also the author of Mystery of Sleep, a romp through the science and abnormalities of sleep. His book, Sleep in Art, is a visual journey of how artists have portrayed sleep through the ages. His latest book, The Man Who Could Stay Awake, is a novel that was 35 years in the making!

Kryger's research has spanned the areas of sleep breathing disorders, especially neurological disorders affecting sleep of both adults and children, and sleep problems in women. Some of the research produced by his laboratory has had an important impact on clinical practice. His laboratory was the first to show the feasibility of ventilating people with post-polio syndrome at home using noninvasive techniques. His laboratory elucidated the interaction between heart failure and sleep respiration and published the first systematic study of oxygen in this condition. He reported the first use of computers in analyzing sleep breathing patterns and validated techniques of monitoring in which diagnostic data as well as therapeutic data on CPAP is obtained during the same night. Kryger's laboratory has obtained research funding from government and industry sources from Canada, France, and the U.S. His research is funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

He has served the sleep medicine community in many roles including as president of both the Canadian Sleep Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He was on the Board of Directors of the National Sleep Foundation in Washington,D.C., serving as vice president and as chairman of the Education Committee. In 1996, he received the William C. Dement Award for Academic Achievement in sleep medicine. In 2011 he was received a Distinguished Scientist Award by the Canadian sleep Society at the World Association of Sleep medicine meeting. He has trained medical practitioners in sleep medicine from Canada, Australia, China, Japan, and Greece.

Kryger graduated from the McGill University Medicine School in 1971. He did his internship at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago and internal medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital of McGill University in Montreal. He trained in pulmonary medicine at the University of Colorado, followed by two years of research training. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine.