Delegate: National Institute of Mental Health/Bušková Jitka
Affiliations: National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany
Short Bio: Jitka Bušková, MD, PhD is neurologist, certified as Expert Somnologist, she is Head of the Sleep Medicine Department and senior researcher at National Institute of Mental Health. Her main interest is focused on hypersomnias and parasomnias, in this field she published about 25 scientific papers and chapters. She is a member of Czech Sleep Research Society, European Sleep Research Society and World Sleep Society. She was a member of local organizing committee of the World Sleep Congress in Prague 2017.
Activity: The topic of this year was “Healthy sleep, healthy aging”. As we share the idea about the importance of sleep for general well-being, we prepared an event for general public focused on sleep ontogenesis and role of sleep in various aspects of life and aging, such as cognitive functions. We also tried to increase the awareness of how sleep can be examined and researched. Along with the set lectures we organized various other activities with the aim to promote individual interest in the field.
We are aware of the fact that different groups of individuals have different needs and this applies also on learning about sleep. In order to address this issue, we produced various activities that were tailored to the particular groups of interest – pre-school children, school children, medical students, postgraduate students in neurosciences and seniors.
• In order to address sleep in preschool children, we produced a tool that could help in CBT-I for these children – small cards allowing children to go for a night expedition after they are told to remain in bed. In case they would not use this card and would not leave their room during the night, they might be given a little treat based on their individual agreement with their parents.
• We decided to promote the interest in sleep also in middle school children. To achieve this, we asked them to draw how their dreams look like. These drawings were displayed on panels during the main activity event and the audience could vote for the best picture. However, all the children were awarded – we organized a commented tour in the Prague ZOO focusing on sleep patterns in animals.
• Sleep should be also discussed among medical students. To address this, we encouraged out medical students to join our research team and conduct a small independent research projects looking at sleep of their classmates (via online survey) and the results of this survey were also presented during the main event. Students also taught their peers about sleep hygiene and a risk factors of respiratory disorders in sleep.
• Our postgraduate students prepared a series of lectures with the topic “Healthy sleep, healthy aging” and explained to the audience how our sleep laboratory works and what kind of instruments and techniques are used during such examination both for routine clinical purposes and for research.
https://youtu.be/L_DBOzhB9p4
• We also wanted to address sleep in elderly as we believe this is very important, yet highly neglected area. For this purpose we prepared a sheet with some basic sleep hygiene rules and distributed this in the elderly home. This was done by one of our medical student, who also provided some basic explanation about particular rules.
Finally, we made a media appearance by giving talks for national television and radio stations (Český rozhlas 2, Rádio Wave). Moreover, we delivered about 20 talks for national newspapers. Some of these public appearances could be found on following websites:
https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/veda/2745704-existuje-souvislost-mezi-poruchou-spanku-a-parkinsonovou-chorobou-prokazal-cesky-vyzkum
https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/1096902795-studio-6/219411010100227/obsah/678219-vyzkum-spankove-obrny
https://www.tyden.cz/rubriky/zdravi/studie-vedcu-se-zameruje-na-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci_515101.html
https://techfocus.cz/veda-vesmir/1112-porucha-chovani-vazana-na-rem-spanek-muze-podle-vedcu-odhalit-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci.html
https://zdravi.euro.cz/studie-vedcu-z-nudz-se-zameruje-na-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci/
https://sciencemag.cz/pohyby-v-rem-spanku-signalizuji-problem/
https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/zpravy/studie-vedcu-z-nudz-se-zameruje-na-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci/1726551
https://www.ozdravotnictvi.cz/zpravodajstvi/studie-vedcu-z-nudz-se-zameruje-na-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci/
http://www.mednews.cz/cz/aktuality/21632/studie-vedcu-z-nudz-se-zameruje-na-pocatky-parkinsonovy-nemoci?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
https://vat.pravda.sk/clovek/clanok/503879-pociatky-parkinsonovej-choroby-skuma-tim-ceskych-vedcov/
Location: 3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague
Date of Activity: March 19th, 2019
Submitted By: Jitka Bušková, MD, PhD
