Delegate: Iranian Sleep Medicine Society (ISMS)
Affiliation: Iranian Sleep Medicine Society (ISMS)
Short Bio: The Iranian Sleep Medicine Society was established in 2006. It aims to promote sleep and circadian health in the community, train sleep medicine specialists and technicians, and conduct research on sleep health and sleep disorders.
Activity: This year, the Iranian Sleep Medicine Society (ISMS) made great progress in World Sleep Day (WSD) 2025 activities for both public and special populations audiences. ISMS activities covered both public and special population audiences through various virtual or in-person events. In addition, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education started a safe and healthy trip campaign with the slogan no to accident (#نه_به_تصادف) in an expanded collaboration with all medical universities and related agendas in March 2025. This campaign, in collaboration with the ISMS director, Dr. Khosro Sadeghniiat, included a mass distribution of a lot of educational materials in different media and billboards on the role of microsleep and sleep health in traffic accidents. This year, cool and interesting activities also occurred in non-sleep medicine-related communities for WSD, promising increased sleep awareness in Iran. For example, one of the cool web-based writings in celebration of WSD was a collection of native Persian poems and proverbs related to sleep.
As mentioned above, ISMS held different activities through its members for WSD and also increased sleep health awareness in different communities at the national and local levels. One of the innovative activities of this year was holding a “sleep school” or educational sleep program for school-aged children supervised by Dr. Mahnaz Amini, a sleep medicine specialist in Mashhad, Iran. The sleep medicine department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) also released several clips and brochures for increasing sleep health awareness among healthcare workers through social media and the TUMS website. Dr. Mahnaz Amini (Mashhad), Dr. Vida Imani (Tabriz), Dr. Marzieh Azizi (Tehran), and Dr. Leila Emami (Tehran) held virtual events through webinars, social media, and radio programs on WSD and sleep health. As a part of a national campaign for decreasing traffic accidents, Dr. Khosro Sadeghniiat, the director of ISMS, talked to the media about the importance of sleep health in the prevention of traffic accidents, one of the leading causes of death in the youth population of Iran.
Dr. Shabnam Jalilolghadr, Dr. Khatereh Khameneh pour, Dr. Hasan Taherahmadi (Qazvin University of Medical Sciences), Dr. Arezu Najafi (Tehran University of Medical Sciences), Dr. Mahnaz Amini (Mashhad University of Medical Sciences), and Dr. Hanieh Raji (Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences) from different geographical areas of Iran organized in-person celebrations of WSD 2025 both for the adults and children age groups. Our ISMS colleagues from multiple disciplines who contributed to the Tehran University of Medical Sciences event for increasing sleep health awareness were Dr. Mohammad Hossein Harirchian, Dr. Khosro Sadeghniiat, Dr. Shahram Samadi, Dr. Nazila Shahmansouri, Dr. Shahrouz Naseri, Dr. Reza Erfanian, Dr. Arezu Najafi, Dr. Hamed Amirifard, Dr. Mashiiat Mohammadzadeh, Dr. Reihaneh Heidari, Dr. Besharat Rahimi, Dr. Shirin Tehrani, Dr. Ania Rahimi, Dr. Jalil Fazeli, Dr. Anis Mousavifard, Dr. Leila Emami, and TUMS research assistant, Dr. Homa Seyed Mirzaei. In a two-day comprehensive in-person program almost many of our ISMS colleagues talked about different aspects of sleep health and sleep-related disorders at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, located in the southwest of Iran. They also celebrated the memorial of our colleague, Dr. Alireza Zahabi, who passed away recently and was part of the World Sleep Academy, too. Dr. Khosro Sadeghniiat, Dr. Mahnaz Amini, Dr. Fatemeh Kashaninasab, Dr. Hamed Amirifard, Dr. Lahya Afshari Saleh, Dr. Besharat Rahimi, Dr. Anis Mousavifard, Dr. Fatemeh Mohammadi, Dr. Hanieh Raji, Dr. Zahra Parsapour, Dr. Forough Soltaninejad, Dr. Mirzaaghazade, Dr. Zahra Banafsheh AleMohammad, Dr. Babak Amra, Dr. Imaneh Roshanzamir, and Dr. Reihaneh Heidari were our ISMS colleagues from all the country who participated in Ahvaz in-person event.
ISMS has made great progress in training more sleep medicine workforce and celebrating WSD events since the establishment of the first sleep medicine training program by Dr. Khosro Sadeghniiat in 2011 at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences. We hope for more distribution of the word “sleep health” across the country and the region by our active, valuable members, and also international collaborations, especially the World Sleep Society.
Related Links:
Safe and Healthy Trip Campaign and Drowsy Driving: https://www.asriran.com/fa/news/1040701/%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B4-%DB%B4%DB%B0-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF%DB%8C-%DB%8C%DA%A9-%D8%A7%D8%AE%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%BE%D8%B2%D8%B4%DA%A9%DB%8C-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%B1%DA%AF%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1
https://gilkhabar.ir/news/i/504236
https://vista.ir/n/andishehqarn-x9ouh
https://www.mehrnews.com/news/6395679/%D8%AE%D8%B7%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%DB%B7%DB%B0-%D8%AA%D8%A7-%DB%B8%DB%B0-%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%B5%D8%AF-%D8%AF%D8%B1-%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B2-%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%86%D9%82%D8%B4-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF
Location: Tehran, Qazvin, Mashhad, Tabriz, Ahvaz
Date of Activity: March and April 2025
Submitted by: Arezu Najafi
