Pioneer of Sleep Medicine Reflects on the Global Impact of World Sleep Day

Notice: Blog posts are not subject to review by MedLink Neurology’s Editorial Board.

Acknowledgement: This article was originally written by Haley Gravalis for OneUp, a digital employee engagement platform published by SUNY Upstate Medical University.

For decades, SUNY Upstate neurologist and professor, and MedLink Neurology Senior Associate Editor for Sleep Disorders, Dr. Antonio Culebras, has been helping the world better understand one of the most essential—and often overlooked—pillars of health: sleep.

In 2008, Dr. Culebras co-founded World Sleep Day with Italian neurologist Dr. Liborio Parrino to raise awareness about the importance of sleep health worldwide. The initiative was originally created under the World Association of Sleep Medicine, which later merged with the World Sleep Federation to form the World Sleep Society. In the early 2000s, he says, sleep medicine was still a relatively small field.

“Sleep was not taken as an important theme or subject,” Dr. Culebras said. “There were very few sleep laboratories around the world and very few sleep centers.”

Today, the impact of World Sleep Day is global. More than 100 countries connect with the event, and about 90 participate in organized activities promoting sleep health. Annual campaigns are built around themes encouraging healthier sleep habits. This year’s message: “Sleep well, live better.”

Awards are named after both co-founders, with the Antonio Culebras Award recognizing activity organizers who demonstrate excellence in promoting sleep’s essential role in health.

Read more about the impact of World Sleep Day over the years here.

Dr. Culebras has spent much of his career sharing the importance of sleep internationally. He has lectured on sleep medicine in more than 50 countries, including across Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Along the way, he has seen the field grow dramatically.

“When I started doing sleep medicine in the early 1970s, there were only one or two laboratories in the United States,” he said.

Dr. Culebras helped change that. Early in his career, while serving as an assistant professor of neurology in Boston, he helped launch one of the nation’s earliest sleep laboratories and began conducting sleep recordings in the early 1970s. When discussing his plans to begin recording sleep, other researchers often reacted with skepticism, asking, “But people are asleep. What are you recording? What’s the purpose?” This, he explains, was the attitude towards sleep in the 1970s.

After arriving in Syracuse in 1977, he established the region’s first sleep laboratory at the VA Medical Center in 1978, helping bring sleep medicine to Central New York.

Over time, research has continued to reveal the vital role of sleep in overall health.

"There are more functions to be investigated," according to Dr. Culebras. One of the most notable is growth hormone released during sleep. Growth hormone is critical not only for a child's development, allowing them to grow up healthy and to their full potential, but also for adults, helping maintain muscle function and tissue health. Without quality sleep, growth hormone does not get released properly at night.

Despite decades of progress, Dr. Culebras believes public education about sleep is still catching up.

“In school, they teach us how to exercise. They even tell us how many calories we are to eat,” he said. “No one is teaching us in school how to sleep. And it’s very important to know how to sleep and to be disciplined and regimented with our sleep.”

This World Sleep Day, Dr. Culebras hopes people everywhere take the message to heart—and get a good night’s rest.

Are you interested in contributing a post or becoming a guest blogger for MedLink? Contact us at editorial@medlink.com.