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Friday 15 March marked World Sleep Day. To celebrate, a team led by Luca Ratti put on a fascinating, interactive public engagement event.

The event held in the foyer of the West Wing of the John Radcliffe Hospital featured workshops, artwork, and an opportunity to 'meet the experts'.

World Sleep Day is an internationally recognised event promoted by the World Sleep Society. It is aimed to build connections and raise sleep health awareness among researchers, health care workers, patients, and the public.

WHY? BECAUSE...

  • Sleep is essential to health and wellbeing.
  • Good sleep habits make the difference.
  • Healthy sleep is for everyone.

This is what people got to enjoy:

WORKSHOPS

  • Why we sleep and how to sleep: the functions of sleep and sleep hygiene.
  • Demystifying sleep: good and bad habits, beliefs, and misbeliefs around sleep.
  • The future of sleep medicine: artificial intelligence to decipher sleep-related
  • phenomena from videos and wearable sensors.
  • Sleep, wake and body clocks: circadian rhythms and chronobiology research.
  • Tools to measure sleep: simulation of a polysomnographic recording.
  • When sleep becomes art: exhibition by the visual artist Dr. Amaia Salazar.

MEET THE EXPERTS

  • From the Pneumologist’s point of view: Dr. Chris Turnbull. What is sleep apnoea and how is it managed? (
  • From the Neurologist’s point of view: Dr. Luca Ratti. REM sleep behaviour disorder

The event was a great success.  Special thanks to everyone involved including:

Aswin Kudlil Baby, Daisy Davidson, Ellen Kirk, Jon Larkin, Nicole Rendell, Vicky Stepney, Dr. Luca Ratti (Clini-
cal Neurophysiology Department, Oxford University Hospitals / NDCN), Dr. Chris Turnbull (Respiratory team),
Dr. Amaia Salazar (Ruskin School of Art / UCM), Lucy Jobbins, Sum Sekaran, Dimitri Gavriloff (SCNi), Alexis
Dorier, and Katarina Gunter (IBME).

With the collaboration of Dr. Zenobia Zaiwalla, Dr. Mkael Symmonds, and Dr. Ben Seymour, Nicholas Irving,  Louise Silver (NIHR/BRC), and SRUK/CERU.

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