To talk about their sleep, there is a book based on real clinical cases of sleep disorders in women

It was the desire to increase literacy about sleep medicine that led four women involved in health to challenge five Portuguese writers to write a book based on real clinical cases of women who suffer from a sleeping disorder. The anthology ‘O Sono Delas’ is about female sleep, but it is aimed at everyone, so that they can learn to recognize the warning signs of potential pathologies.

The book appears on the initiative of the ‘Um Sono de Mulher’ project, created in 2022 and which brings together Susana Sousa, a pulmonologist and specialist in sleep medicine, Cátia Jorge, a journalist specializing in the health area, Patrícia Farinha and Andreia Carriço, both of whom are professionals involved in the home treatment of respiratory patients. “In the last two years, what we have been doing are small events closely linked to healthcare professionals, this year we decided that we had to reach people”, explains Susana Sousa to Expresso.

The challenge was, precisely, to reach the population, especially when podcasts, social media pages and other formats already provide information on the topic. Due to the love that the four founders of the project have for reading, the format was easily decided. “We didn’t want it to be a scientific book, nor does it intend to be, we wanted it to be a warning book about sleep problems and to increase sleep literacy” by transmitting information in a “lighter way”.

The focus on women was also crucial. “Most studies are male-prevalent and very little is said about women’s sleep”, explains Susana Sousa, who adds that “a man’s sleep is different from a woman’s sleep and not only is it different but also varies according to throughout life” due to the influence of biological and hormonal factors. For example, sleep apnea, interruption of breathing while sleeping, is more prevalent in men, however, when women reach menopause the numbers even out. Still, symptoms vary depending on gender, with men snoring more, waking up tired and having an easier time falling asleep during the day, while women often show some signs of fatigue or changes in memory or concentration.

It is common for men to be present at sleep consultations at the initiative of a woman in their life, while the opposite rarely happens, says the doctor. Women are more embarrassed to seek help, which can mean a delay in diagnosis and treatment, and, consequently, increase the development of diseases such as diabetes, depression, anxiety, cardiological or cerebrovascular diseases, among others.

“It is common for symptoms to normalize, but it is not normal to be tired or have insomnia from time to time, these symptoms could be a sleeping disorder and there is treatment”, says the pulmonologist. To “recognize the symptoms and seek help requires knowledge, and in this case, literacy on this topic is terrible”.

To give this warning, the writers Filipa Fonseca Silva, Helena Magalhães, Íris Bravo, Maria Isaac and Susana Amaro Velho each wrote a short story inspired by a real clinical case of a woman who suffered or suffers from a sleep pathology, brought together in a single book, ‘O Sono Delas’.

The cases chosen were the most frequent or those that had a particular situation that made the pathology special. Helena Magalhães chose the case of a 38-year-old woman who suffers from sleep apnea. “It was the story that touched me the most”, admits the writer, who considered it “very interesting how these issues of sleeping disorders are a taboo for women, because if a man snores, no one really worries, it’s normal and for women this It can be a condition that affects your entire life, it can affect your relationships or your intimate life.”

There were doubts about whether Helena Magalhães would have time to accept the invitation, but when the opportunity arose she did not hesitate to consider that this anthology would fit into the themes she works on: feminism and deconstruction of prejudices surrounding women. “It was magical that we could take these stories and give them a completely new imagination”, explains the writer, who was given complete freedom in writing and who had to study sleep to better understand the complexity of the subject.

In the case of Helena Magalhães’ story, the patient, at a certain point, uses a mask at night to treat the disease, but begins to feel ashamed about using it when she begins a romantic relationship. “We are talking about the stigma of diseases, but we also wanted to address the stigma of treatment”, says Susana Sousa. Also, for the writer, the objective is for this anthology to bring “comfort and hope to women who are going through this, so that they can read, identify themselves and, perhaps, gain some courage to seek help”.

Also to encourage reading, the ‘Um Sono de Mulher’ project approached Helena Magalhães, founder of Book Gang, a digital book club that allows monthly subscriptions to books, to create special boxes designed for this book. “It was different because I had never made a specific box for a book”, admits the writer, who explains that she has sold boxes on Valentine’s Day or Halloween, but these are designed for a theme. As Book Gang’s objective is to “create reading experiences”, each box containing ‘Her Sleep’ had incense with a calming scent, chocolates, lavender soap, among other goods designed to relax.

“My goal was for it to be a box to keep in the Book Gang, for people to buy whenever they wanted to offer this book and not for it to be a momentary box that would sell out soon, like the other specials. But I think that’s what’s going to happen, because there are only 30 already”, confesses Helena Magalhães. The remaining 270, which were posted on the website this Wednesday, have already been sold.

The success of this digital book club was also felt on Women’s Day, when the book was presented to several professionals linked to sleep medicine. “In general, these are our patients, we really forget what is beyond the consultation, but this is a very real portrait of what happens and we want our patients to recognize themselves too” says Susana Sousa when explaining that the anthology was very well received.

The book ‘O Sono Delas’ is available for pre-order and from March 21st it will be available in any bookstore or department store.