About 200 people celebrated International Sleep Day in the Mexican capital, Mexico City, with a mass siesta – the participants held short meditation and breathing sessions at 17.00, after which they briefly fell asleep in the open air.
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International Sleep Day has been celebrated since 2008 before the spring equinox to promote the right to rest as an essential element of overall health. It aims to raise public awareness of the existence of sleep disorders and prevent them through medical, educational and social measures.
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In video from social networks, about two hundred people sat on mats in the square near the Revolutionary Monument in the center of Mexico City. With inflatable pillows and masks over their eyes, many of them slept or prepared to fall asleep as the meditation coach spoke.
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The action in Mexico City took place on the initiative of the city government – for local residents, the afternoon siesta is a well-known tradition and has its own term. Echarse un coyotito or “lay down like a coyote” refers to the habit of Mexican coyotes to sleep during the day and hunt at night and in everyday life means a short nap during the day.
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According to the National Autonomous University of Mexico UNAM, at least 45% of the country’s adult population suffers from insomnia or insufficient sleep syndrome, which gives rise to a number of serious social problems that affect people’s quality of life.
