Volunteers needed for sleep research

A researcher at the University of Lincoln is about to test new way to help people to sleep better. 

PhD student Dominic Carr needs volunteers to take part in the study who are willing to have a couple of sleep overs at a lab at the university.

Volunteers can be good sleepers and insomniacs – Dominic explained: “In order to sleep well we need to slow our brains down so that we can first drift off and then reach deep sleep and get as much of this as possible. 

“Unfortunately a lot of people struggle to switch off at night because their brains remain overactive.  We're testing an approach that let people retrain their brainwaves so they can get better at slowing their brains down and switching off. 

“The hope is that this will allow people to get to sleep more easily in the first place and then also sleep more deeply, so they can get more out of their sleep. A couple of things we're interested in is whether improved sleep as a result of this might have some knock-on benefits to mental health and productivity.”

Participants in the study need to commit to 10 nights of brainwave training.

“This uses an EEG headband called the Muse S Athena, meaning participants can do this training at home at part of their nightly wind-down routine. 

“Each of these nightly sessions takes about 30-40minutes and we ask people to do it a couple of hours before their normal bedtime. 

“There are also a couple of sessions in the UoL sleep lab - one immediately before the first training night and one after the final night of training. These sessions involve completing various cognitive tests, so that we can see if people improve on anything as a result of the intervention. We also use the first session to show people how to use the headband and run the brainwave training software.”

To find out more about the study see https://neurofeedback.carrd.co/

To volunteers visit https://unioflincoln.questionpro.eu/t/AB3uyp8ZB3v2Q7