Since 2008, thousands of sleep health advocates have organized awareness activities, reaching millions with the message that healthy sleep is vital for human health and wellness. Each year the World Sleep Day committee of World Sleep Society distributes the Distinguished Activity Awards to recognize exceptional efforts in the promotion of healthy sleep.
In 2024, World Sleep Society established two new awards to honor the co-founders of World Sleep Day and to help foster a tradition of creativity and excellence for many years to come. Find more details about these special awards below, and submit your activity to be considered!
Liborio Parrino Award
About
Each year, one World Sleep Day activity is selected to receive the Liborio Parrino Award to recognize excellence in artistic expression. Artists have long explored the themes and beauties of sleep, intuitively understanding the mystery and power of a fundamental force of human life and wellness. Today, such creativity continues to complement our modern scientific understandings of sleep, and the sum of these artistic and scientific efforts advances sleep health in ways unattainable by either one alone.
Named in honor of Liborio Parrino, co-founder and original co-chair of World Sleep Day, the Liborio Parrino Award therefore honors the artistic initiative of a sleep health advocate who synthesizes an aspect of sleep medicine (physiologic or pathologic) with an original aesthetic or creative form.
How to qualify
World Sleep Day activities should meet the following requirements to be considered:
- An artistic creation (music, painting, sculpture, video. sculpture, literature) shared on or around World Sleep Day
- A sleep-related artistic event
Criteria for evaluation
Criteria for evaluation of the activity or creative work include:
- The nature of its thematic relationship to sleep
- The originality of the artistic theme
- The relationship to the year’s World Sleep Day theme
- The distribution and reach of the creative work
Antonio Culebras Award
About
Each year, one World Sleep Day activity is selected to receive the Antonio Culebras Award to recognize excellence in the promotion of sleep’s essential role in health. Traditionally, the medical field considered sleep only when it was disturbed by disease or dysfunction. Investigations of causes and treatments of sleep disorders are critical, yet healthy sleep itself must remain in focus for health care providers, for health advocates, and within our own lives. Sleep is essential to health in the same way as exercise and nutrition: it is a fundamental part of human life that sustains wellness and allows one to live fully.
Named in honor of Antonio Culebras, original co-chair of World Sleep Day, the Antonio Culebras Award therefore honors the work of an activity organizer who celebrates healthy sleep, promoting its capacity for nourishment and healthy living.
How to qualify
World Sleep Day activities should meet the following requirements to be considered:
- Thematic focus on the value of healthy sleep
Criteria for evaluation
Criteria for evaluation of the activity include:
- The originality of the awareness activity
- The relationship to the year’s World Sleep Day theme
- The distribution and reach of the awareness activity