Russia 2018: Russian Society of Somnologists

Delegate: Youth Committee of the Russian Society of Somnologists (Elizaveta Rutskova, Chairperson; Lyudmila Korostovtseva, Vice-Chairperson)

Affiliations: On behalf of the Russian Society of Somnologists (President – Prof. G. Kovrov), the Youth Committee of Russian Society of Somnologists (Chairman – Dr. E. Rutskova)

Short Bio: The Russian Society of Somnologists, and, in particular, the Youth Committee (Elizaveta Rutskova, Chairperson; Lyudmila Korostovtseva, Vice-Chairperson) have been organizing events for the World Sleep Day since 2014. Every year we try to invent and develop new activities to call attention of people to sleep and its role in our lives.

Activity: Traditionally, we organized a series of activities timed to the World Sleep Day involving people of different age, social positions and professional occupations.

Activities:
I. School activities
A survey among adolescents (12-16-year old) in the schools of one of the regions of St Petersburg (audience – about 150 children). Started in March, will be finished by 25 April.
A questionnaire based on the international scales was developed together with the 2 pupils. The survey includes questions regarding sleep hygiene, sleep habits, sleep disturbances, life style, school performance etc.
It is distributed among the 120160 year old pupils. The results are being analyzed and will be presented at the Youth Forum in St Petersburg in May 2018 (audience – up to 1000 participants).

II. Preparation of papers and distributed materials.
1) The WSD ToolKit and 10 commandments of healthy sleep were updated (the slogan of 2018) and distributed through Web-site and in printed version during all the events.
2) The questionnaires for the assessment of sleep disorders were developed for the screening surveys during the popular events.

III. Popular lectures
1) St Petersburg: lectures on topic of Insomnia and Circadian Misalignment were given for general population (speaker – Dr. L. Korostovtseva). Dates: 27 February 2018 (audience – 50 participants) and 16 March 2018 (audience – 50 participants). The question sessions after the lectures lasted for an hour on both days. The leaflets with 10 commandments of healthy sleep were distributed. Also all participants filled in the questionnaires focused on sleep habits, sleep hygiene, sleep-related complaints and disorders. The results are being analyzed.
The event was reported by media (http://doctorpiter.ru/articles/19104/)
The brief summary was published online at the web-site of the Centre of Medical Prevention (http://gcmp.ru/doc_besson/; http://gcmp.ru/sem_besson18/)

IV. Events for the medical professionals:
1) The leaflets with 10 commandments of healthy sleep were distributed among the participants of the annual event Forum “Sleep-2017” (www.sleepforum.ru), which was held in Moscow on 15-17 March 2018 (organizers – Moscow State University, Alexandr Kalinkin, MD, PhD; Russian Society of Somnology, Gennadiy Kovrov, MD, PhD, Professor). This scientific conference brings together somnologists from different regions of the Russian Federation and other countries and covers various topics, including pediatrics sleep, sleep and urbanization etc. Audience – up to 100-150 people.
2) A series of lectures on sleep for medical professionals were held in St Petersburg timed to the World Sleep Day. The main focus was circadian misalignment and its impact on general health, medical consequences and their prevention (speaker – Dr. L. Korostovtseva). Dates: 17 February 2018 (audience – 100 participants, within the international conference on Atherosclerosis), 16 March 2018 (audience – 30 participants), 17 March 2018 (audience – 20 participants), 7 April 2018 (audience – 60 participants), 14 April 2018 (audience – 40 participants). The leaflets with 10 commandments were distributed during the meeting.

V. Popular media reports:
– A mail delivery was performed on 16 March 2018 informing about World Sleep Day (audience – over 2000 participants)
– The popular lectures were reported by media (electronic source) http://doctorpiter.ru/articles/19104/
– The local newspaper “News of the Almazov National Medical Research Centre” (# 2 and #3 of 2018) published the heading “FAQs about sleep”: somnologists answered the popular questions regarding sleep (circulation – 999 each issue, http://www.almazovcentre.ru/wp-content/uploads/AC_NEWS02_2018_site.pdf).

Location: St Petersburg, Moscow

Date of Activity: March 2018 (focus on 17 March 2018)

Submitted By: Lyudmila Korostovtseva