Russia 2014: Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre-St. Petersburg, Russia

Activities held in St Petersburg

World Sleep Day at the Municipal Centre of Ecology and Biology and Small Medical Faculty: 14 March 2014 interactive lectures for the teenagers (high school) were given by Eugeniya Aristakesyan, MD, Doctor of Biology (Member of WASM, ESRS, Russian Society of Somnologists, the Leading Researcher at the Laboratory of the Comparative Somnology and Neuroendocrinology at the Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry named after I.M. Sechenov) and Sergey Vataev, PhD of Biology Science (the Leading Researcher at the Laboratory of the Comparative Somnology and Neuroendocrinology at the Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry named after I.M. Sechenov): topic – neurophysiology of sleep and sleep disorders in humans and animals. Audience – 130 adolescents. All the children filled in questionnaires on their sleep habits and complaints, the brochures with WASM 10 commandments were given. All the children who asked a question got a balloon with World Sleep Day Russian-translated slogan, the meeting has lasted for 1.0 hour longer than planned due to plenty of questions and high interest of the teenagers to sleep issues [Pictures Below]

14 March 2014 interactive show for children from elementary school and their parents based on the motif of the fairytales showing the conflict between sleep and insomnia (won by sleep), an interactive talk with the pediatrician (Anna Solomakha, MD, Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre; Natalia Petrova, MD, PhD, Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre) on the role of sleep and rules of healthy sleep, and the animated cartoon show (Dreams Keeper). Audience – 120 children of 6-9 years old. All children got the brochures with WASM 10 commandments and the balloons with World Sleep Day Russian-translated slogan. The balloons with World Sleep Day Russian-translated slogan and the brochures were also given to the children and pedestrians at the streets of the city. [Photos below]

Lectures for the patients with cardiovascular and endocrine pathology were held 28 February 2014. Audience – 40 subjects. The main objectives of World Sleep Day and the key issues of 2014 year were discussed. Topics: the lecture “Sleep physiology and sleep hygiene” was given by Mikhail Bochkarev, MD, PhD (Researcher at the Somnology Laboratory of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre, the member of AASM, Russian Society of Somnologists) and WASM 10 commandments were reported in details, the lecture “Sleep breathing disorders and their association with cardiovascular and endocrine diseases” was held by Lyudmila Korostovtseva, MD (Researcher at the Somnology Laboratory of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre, the member of ESRS, Russian Society of Somnologists). All the participants filled in a screening questionnaire on sleep and sleep disorders and got the brochures with WASM Russian-translated 10 commandments. [Photos Below]

A project “Healthy Sleep” including competition of paintings and photography for children and meetings for teachers and tutors was conducted in March 2014. The brochures with WASM 10 commandments were distributed to all the participants.

The project included a preparatory meeting with teachers and tutors at the Municipal Centre of St Petersburg Moskovskiy Region (organized and conducted by teaching methods specialist Tatiana Emanuel): during the meeting several lectures were given: “Sleep physiology” by Sofia Radygina, MD, postgraduate medical student, “Alternative medicine for sleep improvement” by Anastasia Isaeva, MD, postgraduate medical student, “Sleep disorders in children” by Lyudmila Korostovtseva, MD, Researcher at the Somnology Laboratory of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre, “Healthy sleep rules for children and their parents” by Viktoria Nepran, MD, postgraduate medical student.

The competition was announced and the information was distributed to the schools and preschool organizations of St. Petersburg 28 March 2014. By 14 March 2014 the paintings and photos were collected (altogether 178 works were collected, more than 30 school and preschool organizations took part), and the jury selected 15 works (5 nominations, 3 prizes in each nomination).

28 March 2014 at the Municipal Conference for Teachers “On the way to the health: from international experience to Russian and St Petersburg practice” a lecture on Sleep, Sleep Disorders and Sleep Hygiene was given by Yurii Sviryaev, MD, PhD, DSc, the Head of Somnology Laboratory of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre, and the certificates, diplomas and prizes (animal-shaped pillows) were given out to the winners’ teachers. Audience – about 150 teachers. [Photos Below]

 The paintings and photos will be used for the calendar, poster and sleep diary.

Scientific and popular papers on sleep issues are published in scientific, practical and popular periodicals (A notice on World Sleep Day published in the March issue of the Newspaper of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre spread among patients and medical staff; a popular article “Novel technologies of sound sleep”, electronic newspaper BalTPP, http://www.baltpp.ru/a/2014/01/27/Tehnologii_krepkogo_sna/). A series of popular publications are ready (by Alexander Gorelik, MD, PhD, a neurophysiologist at the St Petersburg Research Psychoneurology Institution named after V.M. Bekhterev; by Olga Tikhomirova, MD, PhD, DSc, a neurologist, the Head of the Department of Clinical Neurology at the All-Russian Centre of Emergency and Radiation Medicine named after A.M. Nikiforov; by Vladimir Schekotov, MD, PhD, DSc, the Head of the Internal Diseases Department at Perm Clinical Hospital) and will be published in the following issues. [See below]

WASM rules of healthy sleep for adults and for children translated into Russian are published as the brochures and were given at the events both in St Petersburg and in Moscow (files attached). The poems for the brochure for children were written by Anna Solomakha, MD, the pictures were drawn by Julia Gazizova. [See Below Pictures]

Interviews on TV were given: 100TV Channel, live broadcast interview with the Head of Somnology Laboratory of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre Yurii Sviryaev, MD, PhD, DSc, regarding the World Sleep Day activity 14 March 2014 http://www.tv100.ru/video/view/pryamoe-vklyuchenie-vsemirnyj-den-sna-104642/; 100TV Channel, interview with the psychotherapist at the St Petersburg Research Psychoneurology Institution named after V.M. Bekhterev Alexander Polyakov, MD, PhD regarding the role of sleep in human life 14 March 2014 http://www.tv100.ru/video/view/chto-dlya-cheloveka-znachit-son-104636/.

An e-mail distribution of the information about World Sleep Day and WASM 10 commandments was made among the members of Russian Cardiology Society, Russian Society of Somnologists, Russian Antihypertensive League, the staff of Federal Almazov Medical Research Centre, the subscribers of the journal “Arterial Hypertension” (altogether more than 3000 people).

St Petersburg team would like to thank all the people who helped and supported the initiative and the events: the Municipal Leisure Activity Centre of Krasnoselskiy Region of St Petersburg (Elena V. Kudryavtseva), the Municipal Leisure Activity Centre of Moskovskiy Region of St Petersburg (Tatiana Emanuel), St Petersburg Municipal Palace of Creative Work of Young People, Marina Piskareva, Deputy Director on Organization Issues), the company “INKART” (Viktor Tikhonenko, MD, PhD, DSc, St Petersburg), the company “Somnomed” (Alexander Kalinkin, MD, PhD, Moscow), Antihypertensive League (Anastasia Tanicheva), and our colleagues from Moscow who actively discussed the ideas (Irina Zavalko, MD; Elizaveta Rutskova, PhD of Biology Science; Maksim Alekhin, Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman).