September is probably one of my favorite months of the year. With the beginning of this month, we expect that all children are back to school and our routines are back to normal, and the weather begins to change; we go from hot, muggy summer days, to slightly less hot, muggy autumn days (at least in the beginning. Towards the middle of autumn we tend to get cooler). Until the cooler weather arrives, we can look forward to Sleeptember.

Established by the American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA), Sleeptember is a month-long campaign to help raise awareness of the public health impact of sleep disorders, raise awareness of the necessity of patient-centered research, and show the connections between OSA and other co-morbid health conditions. According to their website, up to 22 million American suffer form OSA, up to 4% of all children suffer from sleep apnea – commonly misdiagnosed as ADHA, and up to 80% of moderate and severe OSA cases are undiagnosed.Although the Sleeptember was founded by the ASAA, there a few different patient ‘spin-offs’ that have popped up through the years. One of them is directly linked to sleeptember.org. It is known at the Sleep Health Forum; a patient – led, patient – supported campaign designed to create fun and engaging online and community events in order to raise awareness of the public health impact of sleep loss, connect the dots with other co-morbid health conditions, raise funds for medical research, advocacy efforts, and to change the sleep habits of individuals and society as a whole. On this site, you will find numerous individuals suffering from sleep apnea, like you. You can read and interact with these people, share your experiences and learn from one another, all while raising awareness on this issue.Some of the countless organization that have partnered with and promote Sleeptember are: the COPD Foundation, Health eHeart, The PRIDE Study, ABOUT Network, Creak Joints, UC San Diego, Depression & Bi Polar Support Alliance, American Brain Foundation, and Project Sleep. There are also quite a few big names in the CPAP industry that support Sleeptember and its cause, a few being Fisher & Paykel, Philips Respironics, and RedMed.

The statistics speak for themselves. Millions of Americans suffer from sleep apnea, and a good portion of them don’t even know they have an issue. It is important for us to come together to support causes such as Sleeptember and educate those who are still in the dark.

For more information on this cause, please see: https://www.sleeptember.org/
For more information on CPAP machines and supplies, please see: www.cpapoffice.com