Why is healthy sleep important?
Sleep is one of the three pillars of physical and mental health, along with nutrition and exercise. We spend around a third of our lives asleep, with an average 80 year old estimated to spend 26 years asleep and a further 7 years trying to get to sleep. Despite this, research on sleep is a relatively new field and the concept of promoting healthy sleep rather than treating sleep disorders is an even newer concept. Healthy sleep is the ability to sleep at a convenient time, remain asleep for a satisfactory duration and awake refreshed and able to meet the demands of the day.
Poor sleep is known to have an immediate impact on attention, concentration and efficient learning including memory consolidation. It also reduces immune function and upsets the usual pattern of hormone release and suppression. It increases the likelihood of accidents, and makes people more irritable, anxious, depressed, and less able to cope with pain and daily life challenges. Equally importantly, poor sleep in childhood is a robust predictor of mental health problems in adolescence including suicide risk, obesity, and high blood pressure, and poor sleep is also strongly associated with the development of chronic pain syndromes.
Sleep concerns are very common, with around a third of typically developing children and more than 80 % of children with neurodevelopmental conditions affected. Children with chronic health conditions such as Type 1 diabetes, asthma, eczema, and obesity also experience an increased incidence of sleep disorders. Importantly, children's sleep also affects parents’ sleep.
Our vision is “Healthy Sleep for All”.
Who are we?
Director
Dr Megan Thomas
Associate Professor, Division of Developmental Pediatrics
Senior Advisory Board
Dr Penny Corkum
Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
Dr Debra Morrison
Professor, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine
Dr Teresa Pinto
Associate Professor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology
Dr Florence Birru
Assistant Professor, Division of Respirology
Heather Tomson
Clinical Registered Polysomnographic Technologist
Dr Allen Finley
Professor, Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management
What do we do?
Sleep for Health Team
