This conference on the neuroscience of sleep stands out for highlighting emerging areas in sleep and for the diversity of model systems covered. We feature talks on sleep in reindeer, wild boar, fish, flies, cephalopods and nematodes including a comparative biology of sleep session highlighting insights from studying sleep in natural settings. In addition, we feature talks on emerging topics such as sleep functions for neural computation, development of sleep circuits, quiet and active sleep in invertebrates, and the role of glia in sleep that are not typically featured in sleep meetings.

Finally, this conference also features talks from sleep clinicians who study sleep and disease. We are confident that this meeting will provide a space for dialogue, discussions, and debate amongst people who study different aspects of sleep who are otherwise too frequently siloed in their sub-communities.

We have a program that also stands out for gender and geographic diversity of participants. We feature 31 speakers with 18 women and 13 men. 11/ 31 speakers are from Europe including early career researchers. By holding this conference in India, we believe our international participants will benefit from dialogue with scientists from parts of the world that are not traditionally well-represented at sleep meetings in Europe and the US. Further, we will bring cutting-edge sleep science to an audience that has not hitherto benefited from this kind of exposure.

Check out the preliminary programme here.