The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a new project to increase awareness of sleep illness and the importance of sufficient sleep. The long-term goal of the National Healthy Sleep Awareness Project is to promote widespread and measurable public behavior changes leading to improved sleep health.

“Sleep and sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia, are increasingly recognized as vital to a wide variety of public health and chronic disease concerns, including obesity, hypertension, and cancer,” says Janet B. Croft, PhD, CDC senior chronic disease epidemiologist in the Division of Population Health, in a release. “The CDC is collaborating with the AASM to improve the health of people through diagnosis and treatment of sleep illness.”

The project addresses the “Healthy People 2020” focus area of sleep health, which includes objectives related to increasing the medical evaluation of people with symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, reducing vehicular crashes due to drowsy driving, and ensuring more Americans get sufficient sleep.

The cooperative agreement calls for the project to last five years with an approximate total funding from the CDC of $1 million, which will be used to launch a public awareness campaign and promote health care provider education to improve knowledge of sleep and sleep illness. The project also will generate recommendations to improve current models for nationwide sleep health data collection.