Sleep. Do we get enough? The latest developments in circadian biology research are uncovering the detrimental effects that a lack of sleep can have to our well-being.
Artist Ellie Land and scientist Professor Peter Oliver embarked on a two year conversation about the links now being discovered between sleep and mental health. This film is the result. Its rhythm is inspired by the circadian cycle and displays visual icons rooted in the science of sleep, whilst featuring the voices of a group of mental health service users who share their experience of disrupted sleep/wake patterns.
International award-winning filmmaker Ellie Land has an MA in Animation from the Royal College of Art. She combines animation techniques and documentary practice to make films that encourage dialogue on subjects ranging from the ways in which humans interact with their environments to women’s health and social issues. She now lives in the North East of England and is currently Senior Lecturer in Animation at Northumbria University. She also directs commercial animation and is currently developing an exciting cross media animated documentary project.
Her recent film, Centrefold that deals with the ethics of labia surgery was commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and won Best Non–broadcast Factual film at The Royal Television Society awards in 2012.
Professor Peter Oliver holds a degree in Biochemistry at University of Bath in 1996 and received a PhD in mammalian genetics from the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London. In 2000, he joined Professor Kay Davies’ group in the MRC Functional Genomics Unit at the University of Oxford, where his research focused on understanding novel gene function in the brain using the mouse as a model system. He has been recently awarded an ERC Starting Grant and has established his own group in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at University of Oxford.
His research involves gene function in the brain and the consequences of gene dysfunction in disease, with focus on the relationship between sleep and mental health.