This year’s Waterloo Foundation Public Lecture will be delivered by Professor Mary A. Carskadon, from Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Director, Chronobiology and Sleep Research Laboratory.

There will be a drinks reception from 5-6 pm followed by the lecture 6-7pm.

How changes in sleep biology create a perfect storm affecting adolescent well-being

The critical role that sleep plays in adolescence is increasingly well documented for a range of areas including brain maturation, learning, emotional wellbeing and physical health. Insufficient sleep, daytime sleepiness and circadian misalignment in adolescence have been variously shown to contribute to reduced quality of life and productivity, greater risk of depression and obesity, higher rates of drowsy driving crashes and illness and may increase incidents of anti-social behaviours, aggression, substance abuse and self-harm.

This presentation will provide an overview of findings and an update of key evidence of the important role of sleep in adolescent development; it will also argue that the ‘perfect storm’ metaphor applies to sleep patterns of adolescents in the sense that developmental trajectories of biopsychosocial factors conspire to limit the quantity of sleep for many adolescents who live in industrial societies in the twenty-first century.