Top 100 Cited Articles on Sleep Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis

Background: The purpose of this study was to identify the top 100 cited articles dedicated to sleep medicine published in journals that have made key contributions to the field. Methods: We performed a search of journals and selected 100 top-cited articles by utilizing the Institute for Scientific Information database available under the banner of the Web of Science. Next, we manually reviewed the contents of the top 100 cited articles. We examined the characteristics of the articles, such as the number of citations, ranking, authorship, article title, year of publication, publishing journal, publication type, and topic categories. Results: The top-cited articles were published in 49 journals, and the most frequently cited journal was Sleep (23 articles). The top 100 cited articles originated from institutions in 9 countries, with the USA contributing 67 articles. The institution associated with the largest numbers of sleep medicine citation classics was Stanford University (11 articles). Morin CM, who was the first author for 6 articles, was listed most frequently in the sleep medicine citation classics. The publication years were concentrated in the 2000s, when 42 articles were published. The topics included 35 insomnia studies, 25 sleep physiology studies, 22 obstructive sleep apnea studies, and 19 other studies. Conclusions: The present study provides a detailed list of the most-cited articles on sleep medicine. This currently relevant approach provides an opportunity to recognize the classic articles on sleep, to provide useful insights into international leaders, and to describe research trends in the field of sleep medicine.