Lunch Hour Lecture | Can good sleep help our brain as we age?

About the Lecture: Little attention is paid to sleep hygiene and Dr Garfield will present evidence to persuade the audience otherwise. This involves discussing research that is correlational as well as causal evidence from experimental and genetic epidemiological studies from recent years. Within the realm of sleep I will also discuss some of our recent findings on napping and how a nap might be beneficial for maintaining a healthier brain as we get older. About the speaker: Dr Victoria Garfield is a Senior Research Fellow in Genetic Epidemiology at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, based in the Institute of Cardiovascular Science. She has a background in psychology, statistics and a PhD in Genetic epidemiology. Victoria’s research has focused on sleep epidemiology for the last 10 years, which includes understanding whether poor sleep might cause health problems as we get older. A particular interest in this area is dementia and whether changing our sleep habits could help prevent dementia. Victoria also has another stream of research which focuses on understanding why people with diabetes/high blood pressure are more likely to be diagnosed with dementia.