World Sleep Day 2024
Sleep Equity for Global Health!
This year, on the 15th of March 2024, we celebrate SLEEP, as it is one of the main pillars of our health, together with sport and nutrition.
So, we should give it more value and appreciate it, not only today, but long before we are deprived of it.
Sure, sleep is free and we all receive this priceless gift of sleep even before birth. But because we take it for granted, we seem to underestimate it, as long as we have it.
However, sleep is multidimensional. It’s not just about the number of hours of sleep, it’s about quality and connection, and about the broader socioecological environment.
Therefore, it will hit back, when we at least expect it and have a big long-term impact.
As with health, if we take care of our body, it will protect and lead us on a long and beautiful life journey.
The same goes for sleep, if we take care of our sleep and nourish it, it will give us healthy and restorative nights which will pave the way towards happy and energetic days.
And even if culturally, we have different habits or wishes, our needs are pretty much the same: physiological, safety, love, self-esteem & self-actualisation (Maslow’s pyramid / hierarchy of needs).
But when the causes of sleep deprivation have deeper social, economic, political or environmental roots, we create the so-called sleep disparities which lead to global sleep pandemics and irrevocable health issues worldwide.
So, it’s time to give sleep some more credit and make it a priority in life and encourage Sleep Equity for Global Health.
This is the theme chosen by the World Sleep Society for this year’s World Sleep Day to promote and celebrate Sleep, but also to fight sleep inequity and raise awareness around sleep health globally.
More details about Sleep Health as an opportunity for public health to address health equity in the Annual Review for Public Health of APHA from 2020.
To honor this special day dedicated to SLEEP, I prepared a free E-Book for all the tired parents who do their best to help their babies make the first steps towards a healthy restorative sleep and lay a solid foundation for a promising life for their children.
You are worth it!