Fitbit has just informed me that tomorrow is World Sleep Day. My first thought was that this was a marketing ploy, another attempt to get me to update my device, in other words, buy a more up-to-date model. So I looked it up. And, lo and behold, World Sleep Day is a real thing, organised by the World Sleep Society, which is also a real thing and not just an association of people who like to stay in bed in the morning.
So here’s what I found out:-
It is always held on the Friday preceding the Spring Vernal Equinox (about which more later). The date changes every year but World Sleep Day always takes place on a Friday. More than 88 countries around the globe have taken part in World Sleep Day events and activities. (Now I’m imagining mass international sleep-overs!)
This is the 14th World Sleep Day. (Goodness, how have I survived not knowing it even existed!)
The slogan for this year’s World Sleep day is “Regular Sleep, Healthy Future”. (Well, you can’t argue with that, can you?)
World Sleep Day is a “call to all sleep professionals to advocate and educate the world about the importance of sleep for achieving an optimal quality of life and improve global health”. (Now, who knew there were such things as “sleep professionals? And does anyone ever dream of being a “sleep professional”? Do careers advisers ever say to 15year olds, “I really think you should consider being a sleep professional.”?)
And this, from the Internet, is what you can do to celebrate World Sleep Day:-
How to Take Part
The World Sleep Society offers several examples of how you can take part in World Sleep Day 2021:
- Share posts on social media with the hashtag #WorldSleepDay
- Organize an event to create awareness for World Sleep Day and the importance of sleep
- Share the official World Sleep Day press release
- Distribute newsletter, leaflets, and other advertisements displaying the importance of sleep and harms of sleep deprivation
The World Sleep Society suggests the most important way to take part in World Sleep Day is to improve your sleeping habits and those of the ones you love.
So I think I’ve done my bit by writing about it here.
Now, what about the Spring Equinox? As a child I always believed Spring began on my older sister’s birthday, March 22nd. My mother is to blame for this; she always said my sister was born on the first day of Spring. She may well have been but her birthday, it seems, doesn’t always coincide with the equinox.
Spring starts twice each year anyway. It’s official. Meteorologists appear to like to divide the year into nice neat divisions. So for them Spring began on March 1st. I don’t recall what the weather was like that day but I suspect it was still a bit wintery. Astronomically Spring starts with the vernal equinox, one of the twice yearly occasions when the sun is directly overhead at the equator. It varies slightly from year to year, between the 19th and the 22nd of March. If the earth went round the sun in exactly 365 days the date would stay the same but it takes 365.25 days, which we all know because we know about Leap Years. And so the equinox varies from year to year.
No doubt the druids knew all about this and used it as an excuse for celebrating. All I can say is: Sleep tight!
Today is another fine spring-like say, by the way, prompting me to take the risk of hanging washing out to dry in the garden. We’ll see how that goes.
And now, here’s a little something posted by the Campaign to rejoin the EU:-
Who do you think you are kidding Mr Johnson
When you say the EU’s done?
We are the ones who will stop your little game
We are the ones who will send you home again
So,
Who do you think you are kidding Mr Johnson,
When you say the EU’s done?
For the uninformed, you need to know the theme tune to Dad’s Army to fully appreciate it. Personally I’m not terribly optimistic about our ability to stop his little game but you never know.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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