Tag: sleep

Diagrammatic representation of a typical circadian rythm.

Circadian Therapeutics Sleep Health Survey

Circadian Therapeutics are seeking vision-impaired individuals between 18 – 70 years to participate in a research project exploring experiences of sleep and daily rhythm disruption.

In partnership with the Blind Veterans UK, Circadian Therapeutics is running a survey to identify sleep and circadian disruption experienced by vision impaired individuals. The purpose of this work, first launched in March 2020, is to provide informed feedback to the Visually Impaired UK community about living with sleep and circadian disruption. The research team are now seeking more participants.

The aim and purpose of the survey:

Sleep and biological daily rhythms (circadian rhythms) are essential to maintaining the healthy balance and functioning of the mind and body. Our master internal circadian clock coordinates our body’s daily physiological and behavioural cycles to the Earth’s solar day – including daytime alertness and sleep timing, to synchronization of changes in hormone secretion, to fluctuations in mood and cognitive ability.

Sleep and circadian rhythm disruption (SCRD) is widely experienced in our communities, with the scope of the problem often underreported. Common suffers range from teenagers, new mothers and shift workers, to individuals with depression and the severely Vision Impaired, and is an underlying feature in many of the most challenging diseases of our time, including cardiovascular disease, cancer and neuropsychiatric diseases.

The Sleep and Circadian Health Survey

The aim of this survey is to identify sleep and circadian disruption experienced by Vision Impaired individuals in order to provide informed feedback to the Visually Impaired UK community about living with sleep and circadian disruption.

Taking Part

The link below provides interested individuals with a simple method to register their interest in the Online Survey and how to find out more about the study. The Survey can be completed at home or by telephone. 

Register your interest in the Online Sleep Survey here

Nystagmus and sleep

Parents often report that their children experience problems sleeping and wonder whether there is any connection with nystagmus.

Now a team at University College, London is conducting a research study into vision impairment and sleep patterns.

Jess Marshall is a research assistant at UCL Institute of Education. Jess is working on Dr Jessica Hayton’s project examining sleep in children with vision impairment (aged between 5-11 years). The project is funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme small research grant and is ethically approved by the Ethics Committee at UCL.

The aim of the study is to establish whether sleeping problems are evident in children with vision impairment. To do this, they will be comparing sleeping patterns of sighted children to those of children with a vision impairment. They are now recruiting any sighted child aged 5-11 years and any child with a vision impairment (ranging from partial sightedness to blindness).

The study explores sleep and sleep-related issues using actigraphy (a motion sensitive non-invasive wristwatch), sleep diaries and parental report questionnaire. The sleep diary is to be kept for a minimum of 5 nights if possible and the actigraphy is optional, but it does help!

Participants will not need to travel to London as the actigraphy watch can be posted to a home address.

If any parents/carers might be interested in their child(ren) participating, please email Jess ([email protected] ) or Dr Hayton ([email protected]). Parents and participants will then be provided with more information.