Delegate: Paula Araujo
Affiliations: Brazilian Sleep Society (Associação Brasileira do Sono)
Short Bio: 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.
Activity: Brazilian Sleep Society conducted an entire week of activities to promote the World Sleep Day. The Sleep Week occurred from March 11 to March 18 2018. The slogan of the Sleep Week was “Preserve your rhythms to enjoy life” and we focus on the importance to recognize individual sleep necessity and sleep-wake rhythm to have good health and quality of life. We conducted more than 100 activities in 43 different cities (15 states from all 5 Brazilian sociodemographic regions) and reached the significant number of more than 25,000 participants. Participants number was measured according to the number of educative booklet distributed. The booklet contained information about biological rhythms, chronotype, sleep disturbances, and sleep hygiene. Moreover, all participants were also invited to answer a brief questionnaire about sleep quality and chronotype. Approximately 6,000 questionnaires were filled and its results will provide a brief survey about the sleep habits, sleep complaints and rhythm in the Brazilian population.
The event was focused in 2 groups: adolescents and the general public. For adolescentes, school activitties were conducted, including lectures for professores and parentes, and an interactive activity about biological rhythms with adolescents. The objective of the school activity were: disseminate the importance of sleep for adolescents school performance and general health, and to dialogue with educators and politicians about the school start times in adolescents. World Sleep Day activity was one of the first steps to start this dialogue. Brazilian Sleep Society is compromised to improve adolescent health, and the sleep pattern and rhythm of this population is a question to be insered in our public health discussions. The applied questionnaires will help us to strenght the dialogue (in this population we applied more than 3,000 questionnaires). For the general public in all 43 cities, we conducted lectures and exposition of educational posters addressing the following topics: biological rhythms and chronotype, sleep deprivation and sleep disturbances. The specialists from Brazilian Sleep Society informed and discussed these main themes with the participants. We also applied questionnaires with this population.
World Sleep Day 2018 was disseminate in the entire brazilian territoriality due to the interviews in different channels of television, radio, and newspapers, publication of informative materials and videos on the Sleep Week hotsite (http://semanadosono.com.br/) and the Brazilian Sleep Society social media (https://pt-br.facebook.com/associacaobrasileiradosono). In total, Brazilian Sleep Society gave more 39 interviews for television and radio, 99 for social media and websites, and 5 interviews for newspapers. All related to the World Sleep Day event and slogan. The material could be accessed in Brazilian Sleep Society website and social media.
2018 was a great year for Wolrd Sleep Day in Brazil. Compared to the last 4 years, we strenght and expanded our event Sleep Week. This reflects the commitment of sleep professionals in disseminating sleep information in society. But also indicate the public interest in sleep science and sleep medicine. We believe that our activies acchieved their aims, and we hope to continue to increase sleep awareness in all cities in Brazil.
Location: 43 cities in Brazil
Date of Activity: March 11 to March 18, 2018
Submitted By: Paula Araujo
