Delegate: Finnish Sleep Research Society
Affiliations: National Institute for Health and Welfare
Activity:
The Finnish Sleep Society in a partnership with the Sleep Team of the University of Helsinki organized this year the first World Sleep Day in Finland. Based in the slogan “Good sleep is a reachable dream”, the main aim was to dialogue with the society about good sleep habits. For this, postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students organized interactive activities, such as games and poster exhibitions, exploring the topics: sleep hygiene, how to study sleep, consequences of sleep deprivation, drowsiness and accidents, and sleep disturbances. One computer game, 1 mobile phone quiz, interactive questions about sleep hygiene, and 5 informative posters were used. To increase the possibility of interaction and exposition of sleep related themes with the society, our event had the duration of 3 days, from March 21 to March 23, targeting different populations.
The first day, March 21, had the medical students from the University of Helsinki as a target audience. The activities were conducted inside the University, during student’s lunch break (from 11 a.m to 03 p.m).
The second day of the event also happened inside the University during the Campus Day, event in which high-school students visit the University. The event lasted from 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
On March 23, we conducted the World Sleep Day in a public library in Espoo, the second largest city in Finland, and a border city of Helsinki. This day has as target audience the general public from all ages and nationalities, for this some of our materials were also made in English, besides the Finnish language.
Another activity conducted during the World Sleep Day in Finland was the application of a questionnaire aiming to know better the sleep quality and sleep habits of the participants and also the opinion of the population about educational events like the World Sleep Day. This questionnaire was organized in a partnership with the Brazilian Sleep Society. Our second aim was to compare our results with theirs and trace a profile of the sleep habits in different populations. Also, the survey results will help us to plan educational strategies to increase population’s knowledge about healthy sleep habits. We applied 90 questionnaires in the 3 days of our event.
In addition of those three days the sleep team members presented the sleep posters (with WSD logo) 14.3. in the sleep lectures of the brain week organized by Finnish brain Foundation, Finnish brain research society and and Finnish brain. Good conversation with the general public was achieved also there.
Location: cities of Helsinki and Espoo
Date: 21.-23.3. and 14.3.
Submitted by: Sonja Sulkava
Short Bio: Finnish Sleep Research Society promotes sleep research and clinical sleep medicine in Finland. It is a society member of ESRS. The society was founded in 1988 and it has currently 190 members. About twice a year it organizes seminars on sleep medicine and sleep research for researchers and clinicians in different sectors of clinical medicine. The society is also responsible on registration of sleep research nurses and sleep apnea nurses. Finnish sleep research society also takes part on making national recommendations for sleep-related themes.
Grants for young sleep researchers and travel grants, as well as stipends for those having PhD in sleep-related themes are given every year.