Profs Graham Law and Siriwardena, together with Dr Simon Durrant in Psychology were at the recent British Sleep Society conference, Birmingham Sleep 2019, which took place at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole, part of the National Exhibition Centre. Prof Law and Dr Durrant attended as part of the conference organising committee and as the British Sleep Society’s outgoing and new treasurer.
Professor Siriwardena attended at the invitation of the BSS to give a talk titled ‘Primary care for insomnia – past, present and future’. He spoke about CaHRU’s previous research on insomnia and sleeping tablet use in primary care. 
He went on to describe the team’s qualitative studies of patients and primary care practitioners and implementation of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTi) by primary care staff as part of the Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment programme funded by the Health Foundation. He also described more recent studies of digital CBTi funded by the EPSRC and the ongoing HABIT trial of sleep restriction therapy delivered by practice nurses in Oxford, Manchester and Lincolnshire. Better training for primary care 
professionals and psychologists in sleep therapy, greater availability of CBTi via digital platforms, and a stepped care approach (from self-care, to primary care and community psychological therapies and specialist care) were presented as a possible future means of improving access to sleep treatment.
At the conference dinner Prof Law was acknowledged for his work on the BSS committee and as treasurer over the previous three years. Following the conference dinner on Friday evening, the event ended on Saturday with a further round of sessions.
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