Delegate: Elena Maricela Majano MD
Affiliation: Bernes Medical Sleep Medicine and Neurology Private Center, since 2011
Short Bio: Dr. Elena Majano/ Medical Director of Bernes Medical/Internal Medicine, Neurology & Sleep Medicine Specialist.
Studies:
- Inselspital – Universitätsspital Bern, Switzerland.
- Neurosciences Institute, Favaloro Foundation, Somnos Private Sleep Medicine Institute and Dr. Alfredo Thomson “Neurology Center attached to former French Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Majano currently directs the first private practice dedicated exclusively to the diagnosis and treatment disorders in El Salvador.
Since 2012: First Delegate for El Salvador
2015: Winner of Distinguished Activity Awardees
2017: Winner of Distinguished Activity Awardees
2018: Winner of Distinguished Activity Awardees
2023: Winner of Distinguished Activity Awardees
2024: Winner of Distinguished Activity Awardees
2019-2020-2021: WSD Honorable Mentions
Since 2016: World Sleep Day® Committee member
Since 2106: Regional Coordinator/ Central America, Caribbean
Our mission at Bernes Medical Sleep Center is to promote Good Sleep and raise awareness about the importance of sleep in life, for people of all ages, emphasizing the benefits of good sleep practices and warning about the risks that sleep disorders bring to people’s lives.
Although we are a private sleep medicine center, we carry out continuous medical education about sleep in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry.
Our Goal: 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep are possible, and El Salvador has sleep specialists, diagnostic tools, and treatments to achieve it.
Activity: This year, strategic alliances were created for the promotion of WSD 2025, to have much more coverage and make the public more aware about sleep disorders.
Our allies were:
- Bernes Medical Medicina del Sueno y Neurologia, El Salvador
- Labroratorios Medfarma, El Salvador
- Laboratorios COFASA, El Salvador
- Laboratorios Eurofarma, El Salvador
- Jorgelina Cerritos a Salvadoran poet, actress and playwright
Since 2023, our traditions “Good Sleep Week” became “Sleeping well is living better – celebrate it all March”
The activities aimed at promoting the World Sleep Day based on this year’s slogan, we carried out during all of March and April 2025.
As it has been a traditions since 2012, The Bernes Medical Banner for WSD 2025 and our Chocolate of Good Sleep 2025 were designed, the last one as a “thank you: souvenir for supporting media (radio and television programs) that interviewed in and allowed us to spread the World Sleep Day 2025 celebration nationwide.
The design for all promotional materials for WSD 2025 was based on this years slogan and drew special inspiration from Latin American magical realism, which served as a key element in the cultural and artistic event that concluded the WSD 2025 promotional campaign in El Salvador. You can see the photos below:
This WSD 2025, we also gave away a souvenir alluding to the closing artistic and cultural event of the celebrations: A dream-themed keychain.
This is how the “WSD 2025 Souvenir Kit” was created. You can see the photos below:
The logo of this WSD 2025 was specially designed for the occasion, with the sole purpose of making the meaning of the slogan visibly clear: “Make Sleep Health a Priority”
In Spanish it was translated to: “HAZ DE LA SALUD DEL SUENO UNA PRIORIDAD”
On March 14, El Salvador’s most-watched morning television program, “Frente a Frente” granted us airtime for the fourth consecutive year to promote WSD 2025. It was a 50-minute national television talk about good sleep. You can see the photos below.
Also on March 14, a second national TV program, “Salud TV” the most-watched midday program, offered us an hour to promote WSD 2025, with interactive questions from the audience in real time. You can see the photos below.
El Salvador’s Diario El Mundo (renowned newspaper) gave us space to write an article about WSD 2025. You can see the link below.
The academic activities to promote WSD 2025 were divided as follows:
- Webinar on WSD 2025, based on the Media Toolkit 2025. Organized by Medpharma Laboratories for all Central America, it took place on Tuesday, March 11, with the participation of 547 physicians from all specialities in the Central American region.
2. On March 14th, the keynote address on WSD 2025 was held, based on the 2025 media toolkit. Key messages for the year were analyzed and explained, It was held at the Hilton Hotel in El Salvador, with the attendance of 127 physicians from different specialties. Medpharma Laboratories was the event sponsor. See the photos below.
Key topic for the WSD 2025 conference:
- History and importance of World Sleep Day.
- Development of Slogan for 2025.
- Characteristics of quality sleep and how to achieve it.
- The consequences of poor sleep.
- Sleep is one of the key pillars of good health, along with regular exercise and a balanced diet.
- The commentary from World Sleep Day Leadership was discussed and fully explained to the audience.
- The three Key Messaging for World Sleep Day 2025 were covered at length.
- At Bernes Medical, we created our new slogan to promote each WSD: ” A good day begins at night.”
- The four key questions for prioritizing sleep health at WSD 2025 were extensively developed:
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- Do you control your environment?
- What time do you go to sleep?
- How much sleep do you get per night?
- Are you satisfied with your sleep?
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- We discussed the three different chronotypes that exist, and the fabulous and unique role melatonin plays in our bedtime and our time of greatest energy and activity. Knowing when our best time of the day to rest or work is important for completing tasks without having to fight against our biological clock.
- We talked about orthosomnia and the use of apps to monitor our sleep. We emphasized that technology is here to help us, but it’s not more important than good nighttime habits, sleep hygiene, and our perception of how we’re sleeping the next morning.
- We talk about the commandments of good rest for adults and children.
3. On Wednesday, March 19, a conference called Neuro Nights: Artificial Intelligence and Sleep Health was held. We discussed how AI is being used in modern medicine, and sleep medicine is no exception. Sleep monitoring apps, their hypnograms, and programs to detect sleep apnea in patients while they sleep at home were discussed. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia through virtual assistance was discussed, as well as more personalized relaxation techniques within the sleep routine. It was an interesting, current, and innovative conference. Laboratorios COFASA was the sponsor, and 17 neuroscience physicians attended.
4. On Saturday, March 22nd, the “Learn. Express, and Dream” workshop was held. Two presentations were given: The first on WSD 2025 and the second on pharmacological treatment of insomnia and the use of sublingual zolpidem, a new molecule in El Salvador. After the presentations, a craft workshop was held, where the invited physicians could relax, express themselves, and take home a homemade WSD 2025 souvenir.
The event was sponsored by the Eurofarma Laboratories.Venue: Hyatt Hotel, Convention Center. Physicians: 32, general medicine, psychiatry, geriatrics, internal medicine. See the photos below.
5. March wasn’t enough to celebrate WSD 2025: on Wednesday, April 2, a second webinar was held in conjunction with The Salvadoran National Institute of Health, discussing the influence of sleep on metabolic hormones and their circadian regulation. Attendance: 174 participants from the national health system across various specialties of medicine.
A magical realism tale about sleep: The Jewel of WSD 2025 activities.
In El Salvador, we continue to invest in art to spread and raise awareness, reach a greater number of people, and promote WSD 2025, its slogan and focusing on the value of healthy sleep. Thus, my inspiration, in collaboration again with Salvadoran playwright, actress, and writer Jorgelina Cerritos, we brought The Golden Hour / La Hora Dorada to life.
Jorgelina Cerritos, (San Salvador, November 23, 1974) is a Salvadoran poet, actress and playwright. Graduate in Psychology from the University of El Salvador (UES). She cultivates both playwriting and poetry directed for children and adults. Her playwriting texts have been staged in El Salvador, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa rica, Colombia, Honduras, Italy and Panama. Jorgelina Cerritos – Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
THE GOLDEN HOUR/ LA HORA DORADA is inspired by the insomnia plague that struck the inhabitants of Macondo, the magical town featured in the Great Play: 100 Years of Solitude.
I wanted to honor Gabriel Garcia Márquez (El Gabo), the “Father” of Latin American magical realism, by writing a story based on that episode from his work.
Why is the theatrical play titled that way?
THE GOLDEN HOUR/ LA HORA DORADA: is that subtle, magical moment at night when the body and mind begin to speak the same language as rest. It’s when melatonin — our sleep hormone — is naturally and silently released from the brain, like a gentle whisper that wraps around us. It’s the moment when eyelids grow heavier, breathing deepens, and the outside world begins to fade, tenderly inviting us to surrender to sleep. It’s not just a biological signal; it’s a sacred ritual, a chance to reconnect with our inner rhythm and allow ourselves to truly rest. It’s the soft light before the darkness, the warm embrace before the silence. That gift from our brain, a gift so easy to lose and difficult to recover
Brief synopsis:
In the village of SombraLuna (Shadowmoon) townspeople had lost their ability to sleep at night, ever since strangers arrived in SombraLuna carrying lanterns of eternal, blinding light. These lights never dimmed, and in their relentless glow, sleep slipped away. One by one, the villagers surrendered to the plague of insomnia—all but Alma and Leo. Somehow, they remained untouched, immune to the curse.
No one slept more than three hours a night. The townspeople had come to believe that rest was a useless luxury. They poured their wakeful hours into the workshops of The Factory of Lost Dreams — a vast, humming place where people brought their deepest desires to be shaped into tangible things: golden clocks, shimmering dresses, even stars sealed inside glass jars.
But as time passed, something strange began to unfold. The colors of the town began to fade. Flowers no longer bloomed. Children laughed less. And the nights grew dull — no longer kissed by the moon or freckled with stars.
Yet, in the quiet stillness just before dawn, Alma and Leo would listen.
To the wind, to the earth, to the whisper of The Golden Hour —
that secret moment when sleep still tried to reach them, soft as a breath, gentle as a lullaby.
One night, while working in the factory, Alma felt a whisper calling her from the nearby forest. Drawn by the murmur, she followed it into a clearing, where an old woman awaited — draped in a cloak woven from clouds.
“I am the Guardian of Sleep,” the woman said.
“And your town is dying because it has forgotten the magic of rest.
Dreams are more than mere wishes — they are nourishment for the soul,
the spark that keeps the world alive.”
The Guardian handed Alma three magical objects to help the people of SombraLuna recover their ability to sleep:
- An hourglass, to help reset their inner clocks and restore their circadian rhythms.
- A dreamcatcher, to remind them to stop working through the night and reclaim the dreams they had lost – the ones never dreamt.
- A mirror, so they could see their own faces and witness the transformations that true rest could bring.
She asked Alma to join Leo and carry these enchanted gifts to every home in SombraLuna,
guiding their people not just with magic, but with care- teaching them to embrace healthy sleep habits: nourishing food, gentle movement, exercise, and joyful hobbies.
These would become the Pillars of Life, strong enough to dim the endless, harmful glow of the eternal lanterns.
And with a tender smile, The Guardian of Sleep sent them off on their mission,
wishing them all the luck in the world.
In time, the colors returned to SombraLuna. The Factory of Lost Dreams was replaced by a new tradition: celebrating twilight with rituals that honored rest.
Alma became a Dream Teller, and on nights of the full moon, the entire village would fall into a deep, peaceful sleep, while the magic of their dreams quietly renewed the world around them.
Leo became The Clockmaker of the Town, carefully tuning and timing every clock
so that nothing — and no one — would ever again steal their sleep.
They never saw The Guardian of Sleep again, but they kept the magical objects as sacred reminders that there is nothing more vital than prioritizing the health of sleep, for it is only through true rest that one can live not just in peace, but in joy, in productivity, and in the warmth of unbreakable community bonds.
The Golden Hour still returns each night… if you’re quiet enough to feel it.
It goes without saying that all those who attended the presentation of the play were deeply moved and truly impressed by its message and the homage to One Hundred Years of Solitude and to “El Gabo” himself.
I will strive to have this play performed throughout El Salvador during 2025 to promote healthy rest and the importance of prioritizing good sleep.
Name of the play: “THE GOLDEN HOUR/ LA HORA DORADA”
Written by: Elena Majano and Jorgelina Cerritos, for WSD 2025.
Date: Tuesday, AprilL 8, 2025
Hour: 6:30 pm: Welcome cocktail. 8:00 pm: Play
Location: Teatro Luis Poma, San Salvador, El Salvador
Attendees: 227, between doctors and guests.
Actors: Those from Fifth Floor Group and Buchinche Teatro Company.
All the WSD 2025 Activities:
Location: San Salvador, El Salvador
Date of Activity: March and April 2025
Submitted By: Elena Maricela Majano MD
