Today is World Sleep Day. Do you get enough?

Or are you the kind of person who longs for their bed from the moment you get up in the morning?

Created and hosted by the World Sleep Society, World Sleep Day is an internationally recognised awareness event bringing researchers, health professionals and patients together to recognise sleep and its important impact on our health.

This year’s slogan is ‘Better Sleep, Better Life, Better Planet’, highlighting sleep’s important place as a pillar of health, allowing for better decision making and cognitive understanding in even big issues, such as our planet.

This focus It is purposefully broad in meaning, with a message that the quality of many different aspects of life can be improved with healthy sleep.

Conversely, when sleep fails, health declines, which decreases your quality of life.

Sound sleep is a treasured function. Sleep apnoea is a common sleep disorder in which an individual’s breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.

Symptoms include daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, and restless sleep.

Today, sleep apnoea nurses Nicola Exton and Vicki Sewell from North Cumbria Integrated NHS Trust, will be raising awareness of the condition and offering advice at a special stall in the atrium of the Cumberland Infirmary.

Nicola said: “It is estimated between 80-85 per cent of people of all ages, including children, live with undiagnosed sleep apnoea in the UK.

“Undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnoea can reduce your life expectancy by up to 20 years and the cost to society is estimated to be £1.6m.

“There is international evidence which suggests that patients with undiagnosed

and untreated sleep apnoea cost the NHS twice the resources of an effectively treated patient.

“It is estimated that treating the whole moderate-to-severe sleep apnoea patient population would result in savings to the NHS of approximately £55m.”

The stall will be manned between 11am and 1pm today (FRI).

Vicki commented: “Eighty per cent of the population have sleep apnoea – many of them just don’t know about it.

“Most of them improve significantly after being diagnosed and treated.”