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Science of sleep

10 June 2009

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We spend a third of our lives doing it. Everyone needs it to survive. Monash is part of a renewed research effort to better understand it.

The science of sleep has undergone resurgence in recent years as scientists uncover the connection of sleep to our mental and physical health.

Sleep disorders and deprivation have now been linked to alterations in blood pressure and diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke.

Associate Professor Shantha Rajaratnam is an internationally-renowned sleep expert and head of the Sleep Research Laboratories at the Caulfield campus.

Consisting of bedrooms, living areas and specialist equipment, it is a time-free environment where individuals can be isolated from time cues and regular routines for days at a time.

"Monash was ideally placed to be one of the national, if not international leaders in this area because we already had a great deal of infrastructure to pursue sleep research," Associate Professor Rajaratnam said.

The laboratory's work was recently thrust into the world spotlight when the team helped find a new drug with the potential to alleviate jet lag and sleep disorders caused by shift work.

Their research found tasimelteon acted on melatonin receptors in the brain and could be a highly-effective treatment to improve the quality and quantity of sleep for patients with transient insomnia.

The team is now embarking upon a new research project to determine how to improve the alertness of shift workers by using light therapy.

"We know retinal photo receptors are most sensitive to short wave length blue light," he said.

"If we’re able to gain a better understanding of light’s impact on our bodies and which lights or certain colours of light work better than others, we could potentially recommend the best lights for shift workers to improve alertness and ultimately minimise accidents in the workplace."