Sleep & Cognition - Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Against the background of their 24-hour rhythm, driven by the circadian clock of the brain, sleep and wakefulness show a mutual dependency. The Sleep & Cognition group investigates how sleep affects brain function during subsequent wakefulness, and how experiences during wakefulness affect subsequent sleep. We aim firstly to elucidate factors that promote and disturb sleep at the systems level, notably insomnia, and secondly to investigate the brain mechanisms involved in the favorable and disruptive effects on cognition of, respectively, sleep and sleep disturbances. We think it’s important to translate fundamental insights into applications to improve sleep, vigilance and daytime function.

Human research tools include, in addition to the standard sleep-lab, brain imaging (high-density-EEG, MEG, fMRI on 1.5, 3 and soon 7 Tesla), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), eye-tracking, computerized induction and assessment of task performance. The sleep-lab has a unique setup for comfortable skin temperature clamping in humans. An arsenal of ambulatory monitoring equipment is available. A web-based assessment tool for extensive insomnia and good sleep phenotyping has resulted in a growing database of, at present, 7000 people. The tool is available for other researchers that want to cooperate.