Delegate: Sophie Smith
Affiliation: Cardiff University, Neuroscience and Psychology of Sleep Lab, CUBRIC
Short Bio: For this years World Sleep Day, we showcased our current research at the NaPS lab and invited guests from DreamsID and Hapus, a public health wales mental health initiative.
Open to all, we had talks, stalls and a dream workshop which ran all day here at CUBRIC.
Activity: We hosted a public open event here at Cardiff University, with the aim to showcase our current work on sleep here at the NaPS lab and how it relates to mental health.
We had a talk covering the fundamental of sleep, how sleep architecture changes in depression and how we can potentially use Targeted Memory Reactivation (TMR) to alleviate symptoms in PTSD and Depression. We had another talk from guest speaker Professor Mark Blagrove, Swansea University, on the current theory of dreams and their potential uses in waking life.
We then had an interactive stall elements where guests can read posters on how eyemask study with free eyemasks, our current work on developing our own EEG wearable device where guests could try it on and give feedback as well as some food posters on food good for our sleep based on research carried out by other labs. We also hosted sleep lab tours for guests who were curious about our 3 bed sleep lab and control suite. We had additional guests from Hapus, a public health wales mental health initiative who are working to showcase the link between sleep and mental health.
To finish the day, we had a dream workshop hosted by Professor Mark Blagrove and Professor Julia Lockhart of DreamsID, who discussed with a member of the audience one of their recent dreams. The dreamer recalled the dream with the group and together we delved into the details of the dream and linked this with the dreamers waking life. The workshop is part of Mark’s theory, that a byproduct of dreams is to help us develop empathy and understanding for one another. At the time of the dream recall, the dream was painted live for the audience to see.
We also released a podcast episode on how sleep can aid creativity and in collaboration with Cardiff University released a quick video outlining our work here at the lab.
Link to podcast – Sleep Science Podcast – Can sleep make us more creative?
Link to video – Sleep Engineering – Lab Instagram page
Location: CUBRIC, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Date of Activity: Friday 14th March 2025
Submitted by: Sophie Smith
