Prof Niro Siriwardena was invited to present at the latest British Sleep Society (BSS) webinar on, ‘I can’t get to sleep doctor’: sleep in primary care’. Niro presented on ‘Improving primary care for insomnia’ with co-presenter Dr Zoe Schaedel who presented on ‘Sleep in Primary care’. This was the latest in a series of webinars on sleep hosted by the BSS. The presentation included work conducted by members of CaHRU in collaboration with Lincolnshire primary care, the Universities of Oxford, Harvard, Manchester, Ghent and Loughborough over the past 20 years.
Niro discussed CaHRU’s research including systematic reviews, observational studies, qualitative research and clinical trials, on hypnotic drug prescribing and increasing access to psychological treatments for sleep, either through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), Sleep Restriction Therapy (in the HABIT trial), or digital CBTi in trials of Sleepio and studies leading to development the Sleepful app.
Zoe discussed in more detail better assessment of sleep problems, diagnosis of conditions such as Insomnia Disorder, Restless Legs Syndrome, and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, and appropriate use of medications for insomnia.
The seminar was attended by academic experts and health practitioners. Both speakers fielded questions from the audience and provided information on further reading and materials on the subject including access to the REST website (https://rest.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/) and REST e-learning programme (https://elearning-restproject.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk\). The webinar was made available to BSS members to view later.
