Welcome to our winter newsletter. Thanks particularly to our members and partners whose generous support enables us to do our work. The busy weeks keep our momentum going as we continue working towards shifting the dial on sleep health in Australia. I will share a few of our highlights from the past few months.

• World Sleep Day sparked a large volume of engagements from media, including The Morning Show and The Project.
• The Sleep Health Foundation are a partner organisation for the Well and Productive CRC bid.
• In April, we hosted the Autumn Sleep Symposium, sponsored by Teva, to highlight to complex patient experience and the interaction of women's health, shift work, and sleep health.
• We continue to contribute to the Mitchell Institute's policy paper: “A Policy Framework to Improve Sleep Health and Reduce Preventable Illness and Injury in Australia”.
• Alongside the ASA, SHF put a submission into the National Senate Inquiry into Assessment and Support Services for People with ADHD.
• We have been engaged by the National Transport Commission to provide a safety assessment of proposed changes to the National Heavy Vehicle Legislation
• The Speaker Program continues to be a highly requested service, providing presentations to schools, workplaces, podcasts, and health conferences about sleep.
• Stay tuned for the launch of a new website and new SHF branding in the coming months. 

This is an exciting time for the Foundation in which we sharpen our focus and broaden our reach, impact and mission. Take care, thanks for your support and sleep well. 

Please get in touch with me directly at any stage via email and I would be always happy to set up a time to meet with you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Moira Junge
Chief Executive Officer, Sleep Health Foundation

After a busy start to the year, somehow we have found ourselves quickly approaching the End of Financial Year!

The Sleep Health Foundation relies on the generous donations and support of its members to sustain our ability to complete our mission of improving people's lives through better sleep. 

As June 30 nears, we ask you to consider your ability to continue to support the Foundation by purchasing a tax-deductible donation or membership. Annual membership costs only $75+GST, and includes benefits of advertising research during recruitment, opportunities for networking, and potential engagement with the Sleep Health Foundation's highly requested Speaker Program.

Please note: If you have opted for automatic renewal through the Australasian Sleep Association and previously purchased a Sleep Health Foundation membership through them, your SHF membership will not be automatically renewed. Sleep Health Foundation memberships can only be renewed directly through the SHF website, or by manually "checking" the SHF box on your ASA membership each year.

The Sleep Health Foundation are excited to announce that we have begun planning for 2023's Sleep Health Week! This year's theme is Better Sleep. Better Health.

The event takes place from Monday 25 September to the commencement of Daylight Saving Time on Sunday 1 October. Each weekday will have its own theme, including (in no particular order) the topics of sleep disorders, productivity, mental health, physical health, and relationships. 

This year, we will be highlighting our Consumer Reference Council, whose living experience help guide our mission and vision.

About half of older adults have chronic sleep complaints. Getting enough sleep is vital to your physical, emotional, and cognitive health but how do we ensure a good nights’ sleep?

The Centre of Research Excellence to Optimise Sleep in Brain Ageing and Neurodegeneration (CogSleep) and the Sleep Health Foundation invites you to join us to discuss the importance of sleep for healthy brain ageing. CogSleep is a government funded, 5-year program that brings together a world class cross-disciplinary team of researchers in the fields of ageing, dementia, chronobiology, sleep, and neuroimaging.

In recognition of the conclusion of the CogSleep CRE, the event will be a panel discussion on recent discoveries and major advances in knowledge in the field of sleep and ageing. Our CogSleep Chief Investigators and other experts will also discuss how we are working to translate these findings into clinical practice and practical strategies to ensure a good nights’ sleep.

Events will take place in Sydney on 20 September, in Melbourne on 27 September and in Perth on 11 October, during and in the weeks surrounding Sleep Health Week.

Details for Perth coming soon.

In April the Sleep Health Foundation held our Autumn Sleep Symposium in partnership with Teva. The event was a great success.

The symposium, held in Melbourne’s CBD, was attended by about 75 people (from inside and outside of the sleep community). The focus of the day was on highlighting the difficulties experienced by shift workers, which can be particularly complex in the context of other life stressors such as menopause.

The event was opened by The Honourable Kat Theophanous, the Victoria State Parliamentary Secretary for Women’s Health, who commented on the integral need for good quality sleep, and took great interest in the sleep field.

The event also featured enlightening presentations from Dr Tracey Sletten on Shift Work and Dr Linda Schachter on Women's Health and Sleep, and a multi-disciplinary panel discussion including a GP, Dr Gretel Heitbaum, psychiatrist, Dr Joel Aizenstros, and Sleep and Respiratory Physican, A/Prof Darren Mansfield.

The Sleep health Foundation sincerely thanks Teva, and all of our speakers for their contributions and knowledge. Without them, this event would not be possible.

The Sleep Health Foundation continues to provide community education via the Sleep Seminar Series. See below a complete selection of recordings of these webinars, available via our YouTube channel.

The Sleep Health Foundation is proud to be a partner organisation for the Well and Productive CRC bid which was submitted in March, and we’re awaiting the outcome of that bid any day now.

The Sleep Health Foundation continues to work with the Mitchell Institute, from Victoria University in Melbourne. The Expert Working Group includes representatives from most states and territories, the ASA, primary care, allied health, researchers, clinicians, and policy experts. We are towards the final draft of a paper entitled “A Policy Framework to Improve Sleep Health and Reduce Preventable Illness and Injury in Australia”. This paper is going to the Department of Health and Aged Care. It will be a very valuable document to advocate for the many changes needed to bring sleep health into the state and federal health and preventive health discussions.

In early June, alongside the ASA, the Foundation put in a submission into the National Senate Inquiry into Assessment and Support Services for People with ADHD. 

The Sleep Health Foundation were approached by the National Transport Commission to provide a safety assessment of proposed changes to the National Heavy Vehicle Legislation. We have assembled an expert group to do this assessment.

Understanding parental perceptions in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

The University of Queensland, alongside researchers from Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the Royal Children's Hospital, University of Sydney and the Children's Hospital at Westmead, are calling on parents of children with neurodisability (ND) to participate in a sleep survey to improve understanding of treatments for neural conditions.

Project SWITCH: improving shift workers’ sleep and wellbeing

Monash University is currently seeking volunteers for a study exploring personalised sleep & light intervention to improve shift worker’s sleep and alertness.

Thank you to our Business Council Partners

Thank you to our Healthy Sleep Partners