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House · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1167: Sleep Health Awareness Week; second week in March of each year; designate

Last action March 4, 2026 · House Postponed

A Georgia House bill would officially designate the second week of March as 'Sleep Health Awareness Week' and encourage the Department of Public Health to share sleep hygiene information with the public.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia law currently has no official observance dedicated to sleep health. This bill would add a new section to Georgia's holidays and observances law creating 'Sleep Health Awareness Week,' set for the second week of March each year, starting on the second Sunday of the month to coincide with the start of daylight saving time. The bill also adds a new section to the law governing the Department of Public Health, encouraging it to weave sleep hygiene education into existing public health programs. During the designated week, the department may voluntarily share information and best practices on topics such as teen learning and sleep, healthcare worker scheduling, workplace safety, drowsy driving, chronic disease risk, suicide prevention, and safe infant sleep practices. The bill states legislative findings about the health importance of sleep and repeals any conflicting laws.

What the bill does

  • Creates a new Georgia Code section (O.C.G.A. § 1-4-28) designating the second week of March as 'Sleep Health Awareness Week.'
  • Times the observance to start on the second Sunday of March, matching the historical start of daylight saving time.
  • Adds a new Code section (O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-21) encouraging the Department of Public Health to build sleep hygiene education into its existing health programs.
  • Allows, but does not require, the department to share sleep-related information and best practices in seven listed topic areas during the observance week.
  • States legislative findings that link poor sleep to heart disease, diabetes, and weakened immunity, without creating any new enforceable health standard.

Who it affects

The Department of Public Health, which gets an encouraged (not mandatory) role in sleep education, and the general public, including students, healthcare workers, drivers, employers, parents of infants, and people with mental health concerns, who are named as audiences for the department's optional outreach.

Why it matters

The bill does not create funding, penalties, or mandatory programs; it mainly gives sleep health an official calendar designation and permission for the state health department to share information. Any real-world change depends on whether the department chooses to act on the encouragement.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 lists legislative findings on the health importance of sleep, including links to heart disease, diabetes, and weakened immune function.
  • Section 2 creates O.C.G.A. § 1-4-28, designating the second week of March, starting the second Sunday, as 'Sleep Health Awareness Week.'
  • Section 3 creates O.C.G.A. § 31-2A-21, encouraging (not requiring) the Department of Public Health to integrate sleep hygiene education into existing public health frameworks.
  • Section 3(b) lists seven optional topic areas the department may address during the week, including adolescent learning, healthcare scheduling, workplace safety, drowsy driving, chronic disease, suicide prevention, and infant sleep safety.
  • Section 4 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard closing provision.

From the bill

“The second week of March of each year, commencing on the second Sunday of such month to coincide with the historic onset of daylight savings time, is designated as 'Sleep Health Awareness Week' in Georgia.”

This is the bill's core provision creating the new annual observance.

“The department is encouraged to integrate sleep hygiene education into existing public health frameworks as a foundational component of chronic disease prevention and mental health wellness.”

This shows the department's role is voluntary encouragement, not a mandate.

Discussed in meetings (7)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House Special Rules Committee, February 24, 2026

    From 0:28:47 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1167 would designate the second week of March as Sleep Health Awareness Week and encourage the Department of Public Health to incorporate healthy sleep habits into existing wellness efforts. The sponsor said the proposal contained no regulatory mandates or funding appropriations. The sponsor linked adequate sleep to learning, workplace and transportation safety, chronic disease prevention, mental health, and maternal and infant health, and reported support from Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Georgia and the American Heart Association. One member welcomed attention to the physical and mental effects of insufficient sleep. Another asked whether Georgia should stop changing clocks for daylight saving time. The sponsor expressed no firm position but said the designated week would remain the same regardless of clock-change policy. The chair said a previous state measure on permanent daylight saving time awaited congressional action. The committee approved the bill by voice vote and sent it to Rules.

  2. House Rules Committee, March 2, 2026

    From 0:19:47 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the 2026 House Journal, p. 1696

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The committee placed HB 1167 on Tuesday’s calendar under modified rules. The motion was seconded, no opposition was heard, and there was no discussion of the bill’s contents.

  3. House floor session, March 3, 2026 (legislative day 26, PM)

    From 6:02:04 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 1167 would be postponed to the next legislative day. There was no substantive discussion.

  4. House floor session, March 4, 2026 (legislative day 27, PM, part 2)

    From 2:48:31 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (House Postponed)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair announced that HB 1167 would be postponed until the next legislative day, Friday. No substantive discussion occurred.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-04House Postponed (House)
  2. 2026-03-03House Postponed (House)
  3. 2026-02-25House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  4. 2026-02-05House Second Readers (House)
  5. 2026-02-04House First Readers (House)
  6. 2026-02-03House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Robert Dawson (D, HD-65)Primary sponsor
  • Lee Hawkins (R, HD-27)
  • Gerald Greene (R, HD-154)
  • Trey Kelley (R, HD-16)
  • Lydia Glaize (D, HD-67)
  • Jan Jones (R, HD-47)

Topics

  • sleep health
  • public health awareness
  • Department of Public Health
  • daylight saving time
  • suicide prevention

Ask about this bill

Answers come from this document. Not legal advice.

Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb1167.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp