[5] NSF convened an expert panel of 18 leading scientists and researchers tasked with updating the official sleep duration recommendations.

This poll provides valuable information to the public, sleep community and the media on specific topics of interest.

[8] The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) declared insufficient sleep a "public health epidemic" in 2014.

[11] The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content.

In September 2017, CEA and NSF announced a new standard for measuring sleep cycles with wearables and other applications.

[13] The new standard expands on 2016's work that defined terms and functionality required for sleep measuring devices.

[14] NSF educates the public about sleep health in content that appears through online, print and broadcast media.

[15] OneCare is a marketing business based on digital content, with a portfolio of consumer-oriented websites, primarily focused on health topics, and derives revenues from commissions on products sold by its affiliate partners.

[24] According to then-CEO Richard Gelula, "The largest single source of National Sleep Foundation funding is pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

The NSF has been criticized by the American Institute of Philanthropy,[2] Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe of Public Citizen's Health Research Group,[8] Jerry Avorn (head of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Harvard Medical School),[25] and other consumer and medical ethics groups for its reliance on industry funding, and the possible influence of such funding on its work.

[2] In 2005, for instance, they released a survey purporting to find extremely high rates of insomnia, declared insomnia to be a "crisis" and an "epidemic,"[8] announced an "Insomnia Awareness Day" and a "National Sleep Awareness Week," but the poll, the declaration of a dedicated day and week, and the widely distributed press kits were paid for by manufacturers of sleeping medications, and the public relations firm assigned to contact medical reporters about the poll took the opportunity to mention the shortly-approaching release of Lunesta (eszopiclone), the first sleeping medication approved in the United States for extended use.

[2] Simultaneously, the drug's manufacturer assigned 1,250 pharmaceutical sales representatives to educate physicians about Lunesta, as part of a $60 million advertising push.

[25] A Sacramento Bee report on these connections also noted that 10 of NSF's 23-member Board of Directors had current or past financial ties to manufacturers of sleeping medications.

"[8] A previous 2002 "Sleep in America" poll from NSF, which similarly characterized the results as revealing an "epidemic" of daytime sleepiness in its press release, was similarly characterized in a report by The Seattle Times as industry "astroturfing" due to sponsorship from the makers of the sleeping medications Unisom, Sonata, and Ambien.

[7] A 2016 NSF public education program highlighting "personal stories about sleep for four individuals"[26] received grant support from Merck.