Sleeptember – The Sleep Charity’s annual awareness month – is here!

We are on a very BIG mission to help the nation sleep better and the theme for this year (2023) is ‘sleep education’ with our #knowYourSleep campaign. We have a free downloadable supporter’s pack full of resources and information for those that want to join in. 

For anyone wanting to improve sleep, they need to understand what it is, why it’s important and what they can do to encourage quality slumber. What does sleep look like to you? That’s something we will be exploring throughout September.  

The charity has worked hard this year to deliver accessible, free resources for all with the launch of two downloadable eBooks; Welcome to the World of Sleep – aimed at parents/carers struggling with their children’s sleep and Understanding Your Sleep for anyone wanting to know more about or improve the quality of their sleep.  

As part of our eBook promotion, we carried out two surveys which highlighted some crucial statistics on the nation’s sleep and gave us a better idea of the bigger picture: 

• Around 4 in 10 children will experience a sleep problem at some point and this rises to 8 out of 10 children where there is a diagnosis of Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND). These problems are typically persistent and do not resolve themselves without intervention. 
• 29% of adults tune into the TV to help them drift off rather than seek professional advice and a fifth cited they sleep poorly, regularly. 
• Over a quarter of adults aged 45+ sleep poorly, compared to just 14% of those under 24 
• 43% of us cite stress and worry as the biggest obstacle for getting good sleep 

It’s quite clear to see that understanding and awareness of the importance of sleep is much needed. So each week throughout Sleeptember we will have a different focus starting with children, sleep and back to school. We will then look at sleep in healthcare, adult sleep and sleep in the workplace.