Delegate: Brazilian Sleep Society
Affiliations: Brazilian Sleep Society
Activity:
For the last 2 years, the Brazilian Sleep Society instituted the “Sleep Week” in Brazil. This approach was created because we believed that only 1 day was not enough to promote the sleep awareness in our population, requiring an entire week of activities. In 2016, the Sleep Week occurred from March 14 to March 19 and was composed by several simultaneous activities all over the country. Considering that Brazil is composed by a very mixed population with different ethnicities and cultures, we aimed to develop the activities of Sleep Week in all 5 Brazilian sociodemographic regions. Our activities occurred in a total of 19 different cities and reached the significant number of more than 8,000 participants. The main slogan of Sleep Week was “Good sleep is a reachable dream”. During each day, we promote a discussion of a specific sleep topic:
– Monday March 14th: Do you sleep well?
– Tuesday March 15th: Insomnia
– Wednesday March 16th: Sleep and modern society
– Thursday March 17th: Sleep and children
– Friday March 18th: Snoring is normal?
– Saturday March 19th: Good sleep is a reachable dream
During Sleep Week, several activities were conducted, including lectures with sleep specialists, interviews in different channels of television, radio, and newspapers, publication of informative materials and videos on the hotsite (http://absono.com.br/semana_do_sono/) and social media (https://pt-br.facebook.com/associacaobrasileiradosono). In total, Brazilian Sleep Society gave more than 20 interviews for different communication channels, including a live streaming of the closing event in Sao Paulo city in March 19 by the biggest telecommunication company in Brazil (Rede Globo). In the social media, Sleep Week was voluntarily promoted by several Brazilian celebrities, which increased the divulgation of our activities to the general population. According to the results of the clipping service, the insertion of Sleep Week in the media was positive and, if paid, would have a total cost of more than US$ 200,000.00.
Our main event occurred in March 19 (Saturday) from 09:00 A.M. to 05:00 P.M. and consisted in activities of sleep awareness for general population in important public spaces of the cities. For example, in Sao Paulo, the event was conducted in the historical center, while in Rio de Janeiro, the activities occurred in a famous beach of the city. In all involved cities, there were 5 educational posters addressing the following topics: sleep ontogeny, sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, insomnia, sleep hygiene, and polysomnography. The specialists from Brazilian Sleep Society informed and discussed these main themes with the participants. In addition, all individuals were invited to participate in interactive activities. In one of these activities, the participants were invited to indicate the number of hours that they usually sleep with a colored stick (red for women and blue for men). We explained to the participants the differences between the individual sleep need and the amount of habitual sleep time. If the participants slept less hours than desired, they received a brooch of “poor sleep”. Only in Sao Paulo, 2,500 individuals participated in our event. All participants were also invited to answer a brief questionnaire about sleep. The questionnaire included questions as “Do you have a sleep complaint?”, “How many hours do you usually sleep?” and “Do you agree that events like the World Sleep Day increase population’s knowledge about healthy sleep habits?”. Approximately 1,000 questionnaires were filled and its results will provide a brief survey about the sleep habits and complaints in the Brazilian population.
Location: 19 cities of Brazil
Date: From March 14 to March 19, 2016
Submitted by: Lenise Jihe Kim
Short Bio:
Brazilian Sleep Society was founded in 1985 aiming to unify the Brazilian sleep professionals, including physicians, researchers, dentists, phonoaudiologists, physiotherapists, and technicians. Since its foundation, the Brazilian Sleep Society is a multidisciplinary institution whose missions are the promotion of sleep qualification for health professionals, dissemination of scientific knowledge, and increase the sleep awareness of the general population. Brazilian Sleep Society is also composed by 2 affiliated societies: Brazilian Association of Sleep Odontology and Brazilian Association of Sleep Medicine. Both associations are responsible for representing specific categories of sleep professionals and for the accreditation of new professionals in sleep medicine field. Brazilian Sleep Society is a worldwide institution, promoting several activities, comprising courses, scientific meetings, and events for the general population (e.g. Sleep Week). In addition, the society is committed with the development of new public policies in the Brazilian health system. Brazilian Sleep Society is also responsible for Sleep Science – the official scientific journal of Brazilian Sleep Society and Latin American Federation of Sleep Societies.