Here at the NaPS lab, all our studies rely on collecting sleep and cognitive data from dedicated participants. Without the public joining us as research participants, our research cannot happen. If you are curious about joining as a research participant, here is a deep dive into what you can expect with us at NaPS.
How do I get started as a participant?
All our research opportunities will be posted on our website and shared on CUBRIC's research studies page. Here you will find lots of other studies you can take part in too. This blog will focus on the sleep research studies and how they work.
On the advert for the study, you will find the requirements for being a participant such as age. With sleep studies in particular, the age range tends to be anything between 18-45. This is due to our sleep architecture changing before and after this age range. Some studies will look at different age ranges so still keep an eye out for this in you are interested in joining. Other requirements will be things like your average sleep schedule, medication etc. but these change between studies and will be listed with each individual study.
What can I expect?
It's in the name - you will get reimbursed to sleep! Most of our current studies need participants to sleep overnight in our sleep labs. Sometimes this is more than once - it depends on the study and some studies will require the participant to sleep at home with a sleep recording device.
All our sleep research studies will involve collecting brain activity measurements using electroencephalogram (EEG), electrodes placed on your head. We will also collect data from your eye and muscle activity so we use electroculogram (EOG), electrodes near your
eye and electromyogram (EMG), electrodes near your chin. The electrodes are not invasive - we simply stick them down with some paste and tape on your skin and the paste washes off the next morning with warm water.
The reason we collect sleep data is because we are interested in what sleep does for us and how it affects different aspects of our lives. This means we also ask participants to complete tasks on a computer, such as learning pictures pairs for example, to see how these things affect sleep and vice versa. In most of our studies, participants will be asked to come back at a later date and sit the same or similar tasks and this is because we are interested in memory and how it changes with sleep.
What preparation do I need to do?
We don't ask you to learn or prepare for anything before you come into the lab. However, we do ask you to refrain from caffeine 24 hours before you come into the lab and some studies will ask you to avoid strenuous exercise 24 hours before too.
What do I bring with me?
You're all booked in to come visit us at CUBRIC - but what do you bring?
For each study, there will be a researcher who is leading the study. They will have contacted you with any questions and will liaise with you for a time that suits you to come into the sleep lab. They will give you a schedule of your involvement and the overall procedure. All participants are encouraged to ask questions at any point in the study. See a diagram from a current study of Marta's which outlines the night stay and how it will work.
Make sure you bring a bottle of water (remember no caffeine!), comfy clothes/pyjamas that you can sit in whilst the researchers place the electrodes in the right place and make sure they work. This can take a up to an hour depending on the placement of the electrodes so you want to be comfy. Comfy baggy clothing is also best as some studies will ask to measure your heart rate using an electrocardiogram (ECG) and will need access to your collar bones and your rib area.
What do I get for all this? Each study will give participants a monetary gift of thanks for taking part. This can range from anything from £25 or more depending on how involved you will be. In cases where the study needs to be stopped, for example, when equipment does not work, you will still be compensated for the hours you have taken part in so far. As well as this, you will get to see inside our sleep lab and see the EEG set up and get an insider look to how sleep research works.
Each study is different so make sure to read the criteria and understand the time commitments. If you are unable to take part in a study, make sure to check back as the studies changes in their commitment and criteria all time time.
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