June 17, 2014
Chronic sleep loss and sleep illness are big problems in America – demonstrated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifying insufficient sleep as a “public health epidemic.”
LCWA client the American Academy of Sleep Medicine(AASM) has partnered with the CDC on a project to increase awareness of sleep illness and the importance of sufficient sleep: the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project. The program is designed to promote widespread public behavior changes leading to improved sleep health through diagnosis and treatment of sleep illness. We conducted aggressive national and local media outreach and developed a series of memes and an infographic for social platforms. As a result, AASM president Dr. Timothy Morgenthaler was featured in a local news segment on healthy sleep, and the campaign was featured in the Chicago Sun-Times, U.S. News & World Report, Huffington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer. Additional media coverage is pending to help spread the word about the dangers of chronic sleep loss and how to achieve healthy sleep.The AASM and CDC both recognize that untreated sleep illness and chronic sleep loss are vital to a wide variety of public health and chronic disease concerns, including obesity, hypertension and cancer. For more information on sleep illness or the AASM, visit sleepeducation.org.