Neuroscience of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Our aim is to understand the specific mechanisms underlying sleep and circadian rhythms, as well as how our environment regulates these processes in health and disease.
Our laboratory-based team of circadian and sleep biologists are characterising the genetic, cellular, anatomical and physiological mechanisms involved in regulating sleep and circadian rhythms, and how our external environment – especially light - regulates these processes.
By understanding how sleep and circadian rhythms are affected by disease we can begin to develop new treatments for sleep and circadian rhythm disruption (SCRD) in these conditions. We are working closely with clinical researchers to ensure our findings can be translated effectively from laboratory to clinic, providing new drugs and treatments for SCRD.
Our team have made key advances in a wide range of areas, including:
- Characterising the photoreceptors mediating the effects of light on sleep and circadian rhythms
- Identifying molecular mechanisms explaining jet-lag
- Investigating the relationship between waking behaviour and sleep
- Defining the neural and genetic mechanisms of sleep
- Determining the mechanisms underlying SCRD in psychiatric disease
Groups within this theme
Theme Leads
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Russell Foster
Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute
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David Bannerman
Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience
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Aarti Jagannath
Associate Professor
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Stuart Peirson
Professor of Circadian Neuroscience
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Vladyslav Vyazovskiy
Professor of Sleep Physiology
