Sleep specialists gather in Darwin for Australasian Sleep Conference

Over 500 sleep experts from around the world will meet in Darwin this week to present the latest research and clinical updates on all aspects of sleep health and sleep disorders.

For three days, 204 presentations will be made covering the many facets of sleep, such as sleep disorders, treatments, shift work, fatigue, age specific sleep problems and lifestyle.

The conference, titled 'Sleep DownUnder 2012 - Sleep Up Top', starts on Thursday 11th October and concludes on Saturday 13th. It is the 24th annual meeting for the Australasian Sleep Association and Australasian Sleep Technologists' Association and will be held at the Darwin Convention Centre.

Presentations will be given on a range of sleep related subjects including):

• Four in the Bed: Sleeping the Aussie Way - a survey of 5,558 Australians looking at who they slept with - pets, partners, children
• Tired Shift Workers Pose Road Threat
• Dummy Suckers Less Likely to Get SIDS
• Mobile Phones and Computers Depriving Teens of Much-Needed Sleep
• Aussie Teens Better Slept Than Americans
• Snoring Kids Continue with Behaviour Problems
• Being Big is Bad For Sleeping Kids
• Snoring Babies Slower to Learn
• Dreams and the Inner World
• Snoring Disorder a Sleeping Giant Among Men

There will also be a number of International speakers including:

• Sleep Restriction Damages the Body's Ability to Limit Eating
  Eve Van Cauter, University of Chicago
• The links between poor sleep, heart disease and diabetes
  Patrick Levy, Universite Joseph Fourier, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire, Grenoble, France
• Insomniacs No Longer Popping Sleeping Tablets
  Erkki Kronholm, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Turku, Finland
• Money, Stress and Bullies Keep Insomniacs Awake
  Tea Lallukka, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
• Get Physical to Sleep Better
  Rebecca Robillard, Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, Hospital du Sacre-Ceur de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

ASA President Shantha Rajaratnam said, "This meeting will, for the first time, examine sleep health and the impact of sleep disorders in Aboriginal communities.

"More generally, the meeting will consider the impact of poor sleep on the health of the nation, such as the established links between sleep disturbance, diabetes and heart disease. These findings demonstrate that healthy sleep is vitally important to maintaining health, and should be viewed as the third pillar of good health, alongside diet and exercise."