Question: how does your job help people in everyday life ?

Alex Reid answered on 6 Nov 2018:

Hi thanks for the great question. There is a close relationship between sleep and mental health, for example post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and may types of dementia are typically accompanied by sleep disturbances. If we understand the way sleep interacts with these primary disorders we may be able to develop interventions or treatments that help. I have done work on negative memory consolidation in sleep which has potential applications to PTSD and depression. I have also looked at memory consolidation in dyslexic children, and it looks like it doesn’t work in the same way (it seems to be less efficient). In all cases I hope that in some way, along with the research of countless other scientists, my work will contribute to the body of knowledge needed to help people.