Sydney labs to ''shed light on sleep''
22/08/2008
The University of Sydney is to open two specialist laboratories this week to help "shed light" on the impact of disturbance during sleep on degenerative medical disorders, it was revealed.
The newly-opened Chronobiology and Sleep Laboratory at the Brain and Mind Research Institute hopes to address issues such as Alzheimer''s and dementia and the effects that sleep problems have on the neurodegenerative disorders.
The facility will include a "napping pod" - a small bed-like facility that will be used to discover trends in napping, caffeine intake and other productivity-based concepts.
Naomi Rogers, an associate professor at the university, says: "One of the areas that we are particularly interested in is the connection between disruption of normal sleep patterns and its impact on bipolar disorder in relation to progression and treatment of the disorder."
A report by the Herald Sun in Melbourne recently found that a local school was using a barcode system on school bags to track any latecomers who sleep in on a morning.
