Greetings on the eve of World Sleep Day!

To mark this important day, the Sleep Health Foundation is calling on all sleep trainees, researchers, clinicians, patients, consumer, industry and business partners and the broader community to raise awareness of the importance of sleep health. The theme this year is Sleep is Essential for Health. We encourage you to use our extensive library of Fact Sheets to help promote this message on World Sleep Day and every day.

We are delighted to welcome a new Business Council member, AH Beard, to the Sleep Health Foundation. AH Beard is a family-owned business since 1899, which has the goal of improving lives through better sleep (well aligned with the Sleep Health Foundation vision statement). We look forward to working with AH Beard to advance our common interests, along with our other Business Council members, Healthy Sleep Partners and growing network of organisations.

As Australia’s leading sleep health advocacy organisation, we are continuing to develop a coordinated strategy to bring about a meaningful and sustainable change in of sleep health in the community. In collaboration with the Australasian Sleep Association, we have developed a pre-budget submission to the Federal government, to support a proposal entitled: “Better Sleep and Wellbeing for Healthcare Workers”. This proposal seeks to deploy tangible solutions to support the sleep health of healthcare workers, recognising the escalating crisis in this sector in terms of burnout and attrition.

The Foundation was a partner organisation in the recently submitted Well and Productive CRC Stage 1 proposal, with around 70 other partners. If successful, this proposal has significant potential to transform the landscape of workplace mental health, with the Sleep Health Foundation playing a key role in advising on sleep-related interventions for workplaces.

Our Sleep Seminar Series continues to be very popular, with the first one of this year by A/Prof Emma Sciberras discussing “ADHD and Sleep”, and the forthcoming webinar this month by Dr Mary Boyle and Dr Claire Ellender discussing “Health Literacy: Critical in Community Education”. 

We encourage you to support the Foundation in promoting better sleep to optimise health, well-being and performance for all Australians. The Foundation is extremely grateful to the many volunteers who generously contribute their time and skills to furthering our Mission, and for the contributions from corporate partners, sponsors, members and donors.

Yours sincerely,
Shantha.

Professor Shantha Rajaratnam
Chair of the Board, Sleep Health Foundation

The World Sleep Society's annual World Sleep Day is being held on Friday 17 March. This year's theme is Sleep is Essential for Health.

Sleep is an essential, core pillar of health and is often under-valued and poorly understood. It's as important as diet and exercise. The Sleep Health Foundation aims to raise the awareness of the importance of sleep and World Sleep Day is a great opportunity to do this. We want to empower and educate workplaces and the broader community about sleep health and its impact on physical and mental health, workplace productivity and safety.

If you're interested in hosting an educational presentation, please consider booking a Sleep Health Foundation speaker to attend your workplace, school, or community group. In the last 2.5 months, the Sleep Health Foundation have already received over 30 enquiries for presentations. Let's keep up the momentum and spread the word of the importance of sleep.

You can also find out more about sleep as an essential pillar of health by reading our Fact Sheets.

Introducing A.H. Beard: the newest member of our Business Council

The Sleep Health Foundation is excited to welcome our newest Business Council member, A.H. Beard.

Sleep deeply influences our level of health, happiness and motivation. With up to 45% of Australians not getting enough sleep, it’s now more important than ever to prioritise one of the most important activities of our lives. Together, we hope to work on our shared mission of increasing the awareness of good sleep and improving people’s health via better sleep.

In February, the Sleep Health Foundation resumed its monthly Sleep Seminar Series, an online, public and free webinar initiative. The series' mission is to provide information and public awareness about sleep, its disorders, and health and wellbeing impacts.

Webinars take place on the last Tuesday of each month at 6pm Melbourne time (AEDT or AEST), with the exception of April, which is scheduled for Thursday April 27 at 6pm AEST to accommodate the ANZAC Day public holiday on Tuesday April 25.

View previous webinars:

Collaborations and Advocacy

In January, we joined forces with the ASA to collaborate on a joint submission for Better Sleep and Wellbeing for Healthcare Workers, directly into Treasurer, the Hon Dr Jim Chalmers, MP's inbox, along with several other government ministers. 

The Foundation's Chair, Professor Shantha Rajaratnam, also presented evidence to the House of Lords UK for their inquiry into "The effects of artificial light and noise on human health." The inquiry sets the standard for broader international government conversations about the effects of artificial light and noise on health, and sleep more generally.

You can watch the full enquiry via this link.

Our CEO, Dr Moira Junge, spoke about the importance of sleep and alertness in terms of health, safety and productivity in the workplace. It was an excellent opportunity to raise awareness, provide education and create new networks and discuss the role of poor sleep as a psychosocial risk. There is much work to do in this area and it will be a combined effort of industry, government, research and individual responsibility.

At the end of daylight saving on Sunday, 2 April 2023 for those of us living in NSW, VIC, SA, Tasmania and the ACT the clocks will be turned back one hour at 3am, meaning we will get an extra hour of sleep.

While it can take up to a week to feel back to normal after the beginning of Daylight Saving Time in October, in April it usually takes only one night.

The Sleep Health Foundation's Daylight Saving Working Party continue to meet regularly and are working on writing a systematic review and a grey literature review. The group are also thinking about data visualisation approaches to communicating the multi-clock reality of DST.

Shortly there will be a public portal available via the Sleep Health Foundation website to canvas public opinion in Australia about Daylight Savings Time.

For more information on getting a better night's sleep view our fact sheets.

Member Profile: Andrew Vakulin

Each newsletter, we will be taking the chance to highlight one of our Sleep Health Foundation members. This quarter is Board Member Andrew Vakulin's turn!

Volunteer for research

Project SWITCH: improving shift workers’ sleep and wellbeing

Receive personalised recommendations tailored to your body clock!

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

We are looking for shift workers who are:

1. Aged between 18-65 years
2. On average, work at least4 night (≥ 6 hours worked between 2200h - 0800h) OR early morning (defined as starting work before 0700) shifts each month
3. Have a roster pattern incorporating ≥ 2 consecutive night/ early morning shifts
4. Able to use a light-emitting device while at work

The study involves:

• ~ 6 weeks of daily sleep & light monitoring with daily tasks (5 mins/day)
• Objective body clock assessments (2 times during study)
• Following sleep-wake and light recommendations that are tailored for your body clock (portable devices will be provided).

Participants will be reimbursed ~$375 for study completion. All tasks will occur in the context of participants’ usual lives, meaning individuals do not need to visit a laboratory.

Interested?

Register your interest via email (base.switch@monash.edu) or use the link below, and a researcher will be in touch with further information.

New research

Influence of poor sleep on cardiovascular disease-free life expectancy: a multi-resource-based population cohort study 

A new study led by researchers at the University of Sydney in collaboration with Southern Denmark University has found that poor sleep could lead to up to seven years of heightened risk of cardiovascular disease.

If you’re concerned about your sleep health, book an appointment with your trusted healthcare professional today about getting your sleep checked!

Find the full study here.

Effectiveness of Intranasal Mometasone Furoate vs Saline for Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Research led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne and published in JAMA Pediatrics found saline nasal spray was just as effective as anti-inflammatory steroid nasal spray in treating children with breathing difficulties.

This is an important update for children with snoring problems and could halve the numbers of children needing surgery.

Find the full study here.

Thank you to our Business Council Partners

Thank you to our Healthy Sleep Partners