The science and culture of sleep and sleeplessness

Sleep is an enormous part of our lives and has fascinated scientists, artists and writers for centuries: Why do we sleep? And why do we sometimes struggle to sleep?

Join UCL Grand Challenges for a day of informal talks - with perspectives on sleep and sleeplessness from biologists, historians, artists, medics and cultural critics - and continued discussion over drinks in the evening.

Speakers:

• Professor Matthew Beaumont (UCL Urban Laboratory / UCL English)
• Professor Nick Franks (Imperial College London, Department of Life Sciences)
• Dr Guy Meadows (The Sleep School) 
• Kimberley Whitehead (UCL Department of Neuroscience)
• Professor Simon Morgan Wortham (Professor of English, Kingston University)
• Dr Fran Knight (UCL Institute of Education)
• Dr Anna Katharina Schaffner (Reader in Comparative Literature and Medical Humanities, University of Kent)
• Dr Sasha Handley (Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, The University of Manchester)
• Andrew Carnie (artist) 
• Dr Sofia Eriksson (National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery)

Further links:

• Registration on the Free Word Centre website