UM Team Philips Premium

We are a multinational team of Master's students from the Premium Honours Excellence programme offered at Maastricht University for high-performing and motivated Master's students. We are all from different Master Tracks and different Faculties, a really interdisciplinary team. We are working in collaboration with world renownded providers of medical equipment, Philips. Hover over here to access our chapters!

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AND HERE IT IS!

As our PREMIUM experience is coming to an end, here is our journey throughout the past few months all in one video. We have had an amazing time working with the clients, our mentors and most of all with each other :)

It is definitely going to be an unforgettable project for us and we look forward to these remaining weeks working together.

We hope you enjoy watching this video and to all our Premium colleagues, see you at the closing ceremony!

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#ThrowbackBackThursday

During one of our visits to Philips, we managed to find Baymax from Big Hero 6!! Our journey so far has been one of fun and excitement. We’re sad to say the Premium experience is coming to an end for us as the closing ceremony is three weeks away. However, we’ve got a little surprise in store for you ;)

Stay tuned, we will be posting it tomorrow! 

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You know that thing we all take for granted? Oh yeah, sleep! Check out how your body reacts when running empty on sleep.

After watching this video, I will think twice about binge watching my favourite show on Netflix! Getting my full sleep cycle suddenly became more important! :D 

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Who can relate ?

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Did you know, some American companies are changing their personnel rules to allow a daily nap! 

Naps are a great way to catch up on sleep if you are sleep deprived. Check out the following article to learn how best to nap during your day. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/els-van-der-helm/3-rules-for-the-perfect-n_b_9947508.html

These simple rules will allow you to play catch up with your sleep. Happy napping :)

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Have you ever stayed up all night to study for a test, or sacrificed sleep to review talking points for a presentation? 

Don’t worry, you’re not alone, we’ve all been there. But a growing body of research suggests that your best bet is to sleep on it. That's because sleep helps strengthen memories you've formed throughout the day, and links new memories to older ones. Some findings suggest that sleep can do more than strengthen memories: it might even help with problem solving and creative insight.

The first reports of sleep’s positive effect on memory date back to 1924, when researchers taught people nonsense syllables and tested them hours later. Subjects who got some shut-eye before testing were better at remembering than those who had stayed awake. Other studies have shown that getting a full eight hours of sleep after learning a new task, such as a finger-tapping exercise, or after studying a long list of words can boost recall the next day. Even a one-hour nap can improve performance on certain tasks. 

Play It Again, Brain!

When you nod off at night, your brain “replays” the day’s events. During these nightly recaps, brain regions essential for making and storing memories, namely the hippocampus and the neocortex, “talk” to one another.

While the connection between sleep and memory is clear, scientists are still learning how sleep exerts its beneficial effects in the brain and within individual neurons. In addition, researchers are still exploring sleep’s role in learning and creative insight. And researchers have yet to fully figure out the impact of chronic sleep loss on memory, or to facilitate ways to help body and mind recover from sleep loss. Many questions remain unanswered, but with further study — and a good night’s sleep — scientists are learning more about the relationship between sleep and memory.

If you’re interested in finding out more, check out the sources below!

References

Cai DJ, Mednick SA, Harrison EM, Kanady JC, Mednick SC. REM, not incubation, improves creativity by priming associative networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 106(25):10130-4 (2009). Gujar N, Yoo SS, Hu P, Walker MP. The unrested resting brain: sleep deprivation alters activity within the default-mode network. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 22(8):1637-48 (2010).

Wilson MA, McNaughton BL. Reactivation of hippocampal ensemble memories during sleep. Science. (5172):676-9 (1994). Yang G, Lai CS, Cichon J, Ma L, Li W, et al. Sleep promotes branch-specific formation of dendritic spines after learning. Science. 344(6188):1173-8 (2014).

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“STRIKE A POSE!”

Very productive meeting this morning via Skype. Although we are one person down, spirits are still high and we are getting it done! Lots of exciting research discussed, looking forward to showing it to our clients next week!

Best of luck to Chava on her academic adventures abroad in India & Croatia!

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Fun fact of the week - diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.

Your bedroom environment can drastically impact your sleep. Are you browsing your phone or tablet before sleep? Are you entering a brightly lit up bathroom to brush your teeth before bed? Research suggests exposure to Fluorescent bulbs and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) before bed can suppresses the production of melatonin. This is especially the case for blue light wavelengths produced from electronics and overhead lights, which suppress sleep more than any other type of light at night because the body is more sensitive to this type of light. 

Light is detected by the retina, which sends signals to the hypothalamus. When it starts getting dark outside, the hypothalamus signals to the body to start creating sleep hormones, like melatonin, and to drop the human's body temperature to prepare for sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. In the morning, when light is sensed, the body is told to warm up and to produce hormones, like cortisol, that wake the body up. 

Take our advice and refrain from using electronics up to an hour before bed. Don’t interrupt your sleep pattern. The body's biological clock works in rhythms that are set by the amount of light and dark the body is exposed to. This is called the circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms control the timing of many physiological processes. They determine sleeping and feeding patterns, as well as brain activity, hormone production and cell regeneration.

If you really must, try dimming the devices or setting nighttime display mode!

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We share our first pitch to philips with you. We worked on it during the first weeks of the PREMIUM programme.

When we had our first meeting in Eindhoven with our client we presented this to them.

It did not go the way we planned it, though it was fun and in the end we learned a lesson.

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Today we present you a TEDx talk by Dr. Vyga Kaufmann, from the Boulder series.

She is talking about insomnia and what that is on top of other things. 

Check it out!

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Have a nice Tuesday !!

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Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone

Anthony Burgess

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How long can we go without sleep!

So, we have talked a lot about the consequences of sleep deprivation and how you can achieve a better sleep quality. But the central question often burning in people, at the verge of losing their sanity over stress and sleep deprivation is: How long can we actually go without sleep?

There are some experiments done with rats, to shwo how long they can go wihtout sleep before dying. It was shown that of 10 rats used in this particular experiment (Rechtschaffem, Bergmann, Everson, Kushida,& Gilliland, 1989) only 2 made it longer than 11 days. The rats showed increased eating while loosing a lot of weight, as their bodies were burning energy excessively. The bodies were not working efficiently anymore. Also their appearances were changing and they showed a lot of cuts and bruises over their bodies. This study thoug, had several flaws, which make a causal link between total sleep deprivation and death impossible.

What about humans? There are abnormal cases where people are going without sleep for a long time, such as Michael Corke who suffered from fatal familial insomnia and died after 6 months of sleep deprivation (Kyle). Fatal Familial Insomnia is a genetically inherited sleep disorder, which is always resulting in death. But what about sleep deprivation of less than 11 days or 6 months.There are already severe effects, like increased inflammatory markers, meaning effects on your immune system, after “only” 36 hours of sleep deprivation (Theobald, 2016). You can see that there are severe effects on your health after just a little sleep deprivation. You will also experience micro sleeps, engaged by your body who is fearing to break down completely (Theobald, 2016). 

We are not sure how long humans can go completely without sleep, but 11 days (Kyle) led already to hallucinations and severe health effects, when a student tried it in the 1960ies. We can only guess from studies on animals and humans with sleep disorders that it is not very long and that the effects are gradually worsening until your whole body shuts down.

As a lesson to be learnt you should know that there are severe effects starting at 24 hours concerning attention and memory, effects on your physical health directly starting around 36 hours and how long you can go from there always depends on your previous health history.

If you want the information firsthand, jsut check out our sources:

Kyle, S. How long can you go without sleep?. Retrieved from: https://www.sleepio.com/articles/sleep-science/how-long-can-you-go-without-sleep/

Rechtschaffen, A., Bergmann, B. M., Everson, C. A., Kushida, C. A., & Gilliland, M. A. (1989). Sleep deprivation in the rat: X. Integration and discussion of the findings. Sleep, 12(1), 68-87.

Theobald, M. (2016, February 22). What Happens When You Don’t Sleep for Days. Retrieved from: http://www.everydayhealth.com/conditions/what-happens-when-you-dont-sleep-days/

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Sleep positions? Should you know about that?

Sleeping is something that you just do, right? But somehow we all woke up at least once completely messed up, with the feet at the top of the bed and the head hanging out, or something similar and less extreme. This should ring a bell in you.

Let’s dive in the topic of what you should know about sleeping positions. Research has proven that as you get older you move less during the night, at least concerning your sleeping position (De Koninck, Lorrain,& Gagnon, 1992). So that is good news, because moving less means better sleep. There are also changes in which body position you spend most time in. During childhood equal time is spend on the back, stomach and lying on the side, whereas older people spend most time lying on the right side (De Koninck et al., 1992). In another study it was proven that babies slept best when sleeping on the stomach. They were sleeping more deeply and for longer periods (Kahn et al., 1993). So which sleeping position is best for you is partly dependent on your age.

There is evidence that people use a certain set of sleeping positions during the night and which is consistent over different nights (De Koninck, Gagnon,& Lallier, 1983). So there are different types of sleeping postions (Sleep Junkie, 2016) namely: Side Sleeping, Fetal Position, Stomach Sleeping, Back Sleeping and Starfish Position. A majority of the responding people slept in the fetal position, which might be bad for your joints though. Next up are Side sleepers, again there might be pressure posed on your body, which you can avoid by using the right matresses and pillows (Sleep Junkie, 2016). Around 5-8 % of the remaining respondents indicated to prefer sleeping on the stomach, Starfish position or on their back (Sleep Junkie, 2016). So depending on which sleeping position you like the best, you should think about matresses and also pillows which can relive pressure from your body.

There seems to be a link between sleep positions and quality of sleep. Research showed that poor sleeper woke up more often than good sleepers (De Koninck et al., 1983). Also it was shown that good sleepers spend more time on their back with a straight head (De Koninck et al. 1983). Based on these findings you should consider sleeping positions to optimize your sleep. But when you consider only sleeping on your back you could probably profit from the fact that sleeping on the back is associated with more snoring and sleep apnea (Ravesloot, Van Maanen, Dun,& de Vries, 2013). So only sleeping on the back is also no option, especially if you are not sleeping alone or have thin walls so the neighbours would be annoyed by your snoring.

Another interesting link seem to exist betwen sleeping positions and personality traits and general mental health. The fetal position for example has been linked to being hard on the outside but having a soft core (Sleep Junkie, 2016; WebMD, 2009). Something nice is if you are a sleeper using a lot of Starfish sleeping time, as you may make friends easily and also very quick. As a conclusion both (Sleep Junkie, 2016; WebMD, 2009) say that if you sleep in an uncomfortable or wrong sleeping osition you are crancy and less rested on the next day.

As a lesson to be learned you can take away that there are different sleeping positions, which have different meanings and effects on you and your health, influenced partly by your age.

If you want to read some details you can consult our sources:

De Koninck, J., Gagnon, P., & Lallier, S. (1983). Sleep positions in the young adult and their relationship with the subjective quality of sleep. Sleep, 6(1), 52-59.

De Koninck, J., Lorrain, D., & Gagnon, P. (1992). Sleep positions and position shifts in five age groups: an ontogenetic picture. Sleep, 15(2), 143-149.

Kahn, A., Groswasser, J., Sottiaux, M., Rebuffat, E., Franco, P., & Dramaix, M. (1993). Prone or supine body position and sleep characteristics in infants. Pediatrics, 91(6), 1112-1115.

Ravesloot, M. J. L., Van Maanen, J. P., Dun, L., & De Vries, N. (2013). The undervalued potential of positional therapy in position-dependent snoring and obstructive sleep apnea—a review of the literature. Sleep and Breathing, 17(1), 39-49.

Sleep Junkie (2016, March 25). What does your sleep position mean? Retrieved from: http://www.sleepjunkie.org/what-does-your-sleep-position-mean/

WebMD (2005, June 29). What Your Sleeping Style Says About You. Retrieved from: http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/what-your-sleeping-style-says-about-you#1

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Today we present you a short lesson on sleep walking. An interesting phenomen mostly occurring during childhood.

Enjoy it, while we are enjoying perfect weather on this Kingsday!

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As a short term resolution for sleeping bad you can just tell yourself that you slept great.

There are results from a study showing that participants who had not slept enough were told they had slep well actually felt more rested than if they were told the truth.

Beck, J. (2014, January 24). Study: Believing You’ve Slept Well, Even If You Haven't, Improves Performance. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/study-believing-you-ve-slept-well-even-if-you-havent-improves-performance/283305/

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Taking our steps towards an end-product.

Today we met up at the Edlab to talk about our work for this week, in order to finish our project for Philips.

A lot of organizing and transfering has yet to be done !