Why Do We Sleep?

Wednesday, August 14, 2013


 Neuroscience
Russell Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages - and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health.




Russell Foster is a circadian neuroscientist: He studies the sleep cycles of the brain. And he asks: What do we know about sleep? Not a lot, it turns out, for something we do with one-third of our lives.

In this TEDx talk, Foster shares three popular theories about why we sleep, busts some myths about how much sleep we need at different ages -- and hints at some bold new uses of sleep as a predictor of mental health.

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Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and the Head of Department of Ophthalmology. He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College. Prior to this, Foster was at Imperial College where Foster was Chair of Molecular Neuroscience within the Faculty of Medicine. His research spans basic and applied circadian and photoreceptor biology.

For his discovery of non-rod, non-cone ocular photoreceptors he has been awarded the Honma prize (Japan), Cogan award (USA), and Zoological Society Scientific & Edride-Green Medals (UK). He is the co-author of Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing, a popular science book on circadian rhythms.


SOURCE  TEDx Talks

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