'World's largest sleep study' seeks online volunteers

Brain scientists at a Canadian university are aiming toget a better handle on how sleep affects memory, problem solvingand other cognitive functions in what they are billing as thelargest such study ever to be done.

The researchers at Western University, based in London, Ont., arehoping to recruit upwards of 100,000 participants from around theworld for the online study.

There's a lot about sleep and sleep deprivation and its effectson the brain that we just don't know.- BobbyStojanoski,Western University

"There's a lot about sleep and sleep deprivation and its effectson the brain that we just don't know," Bobby Stojanoski, one of theresearch scientists, said in an interview. "For instance, how muchsleep is necessary? Is that true for everybody? Are there certainsub-populations who require more or less sleep?"

A suite of 12 online tests will be used to assess how changes insleep patterns affect performance. To take part, users registeronline at worldslargestsleepstudy.comthen, over athree-day period, do the brain-function tests and fill in aquestionnaire regarding sleep.

Volunteer participants will get a report on how they fared,and how they stacked up against others who've done the same testing.

'World's largest sleep study'

"We all have a bad night of sleep every once in a while, and wedrive our cars and we go to work, but are we doing this in acognitively deprived state?" Stojanoski said. "We hope to answerthese questions."

The online tests, which can done on any computer, tablet or smartphone, are designed to assess different kinds of thinking. Theyinvolve challenges such as finding odd-one-out shapes, movingnumbers into placeand grammatical tests.

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Some preliminary participants have already taken the tests andwere given brain scans when fully rested and after a sleeplessnight, something that would not bepractical on a wider scale. The online studywhich about 15,000 people had signed up to take part in as ofTuesday morning aims to extract equivalent information on a muchlarger scale.

While there's no end date to the study, the researchers hope tohave gathered enough information to start their analysis and beginreporting findings by the end of the year.

Led by neuroscientist Adrian Owen at the university's Brain andMind Institute, the handful of researchers hope that recruiting huge numbers of participants of various ages and all walks of life willlend a statistical reliability to the data collected.

"Our goal is to be the world's largest sleep study everconducted," Stojanoski said. "With more people, we can more
accurately assess how fluctuations in your sleep affect cognition."

What we learn ultimately has the potential tochange how millions of people go about their daily lives.- Adrian Owen,Brain andMind Institute, Western University

While other sleep studies have claimed to be the "largest," theWestern researchers say none has been subject to the scientific rigour of this study or examined links between cognition and sleep.

Owen, of Toronto-based CambridgeBrain Sciences, which designed the tests, has garnered attention forhis brain research. His work includes showing that some apparentlyunresponsive brain-injured patients can actually be aware of theircondition and can communicate.

"We have the opportunity in this study to learn far more aboutthe brain's response to sleep than we have ever had before," Owensaid in a statement. "What we learn ultimately has the potential tochange how millions of people go about their daily lives."