Delegate: Megan Thomas
Affiliation: IWK Health
Short Bio: Dr Megan Thomas is a UK trained Developmental Pediatrician, who has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University since September 2020. She is cross-appointed to the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and supervises a number of research students in that department. Her research is clinically focused and predominantly involves children with neurodevelopmental difficulties and disabilities and their families. She has a particular interest in sleep and has been involved in behavioral and pharmacological sleep studies, as well as a systematic review of sleep interventions for children with neurodisabilities. She is passionate about understanding and supporting parents and families with a disabled child live well and this led to her PhD completed in 2011. As her experience of sleep medicine and sleep research have developed, she has become interested and committed in helping all children and their families, and indeed society in general, achieve healthy sleep. Research projects and educational endeavors that she is currently undertaking and developing reflect this priority.
Activity: A ‘Sleep for Health’ display will take place on March 14-15 at the IWK Health Centre, the only major women’s and children’s hospital and trauma center in Atlantic Canada. The display will focus on sleep health when at home or staying in hospital.
– Information and resources on sleep health will be provided.
– Past and current IWK research studies to support families’ sleep when at home or in hospital will be shared, including opportunities to participate.
– Visitors are welcome to share their thoughts on sleep and sleep in hospital on our ‘post-it’ wall.
– The display will also include a SoundEar, a device used by IWK Health to visually display noise levels on hospital units, to demonstrate one of our strategies to support patients’ and their family members’ sleep.
– Finally, opportunities to engage in other World Sleep Day activities, including Canada’s ‘Week to Better Sleep’, will be shared.
Sleep trainees will be available to answer questions and share more about the importance of healthy sleep!
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Date of Activity: March 14-15, 2024
Submitted by: Victoria Foxall
