Dr. Siobhan Banks — Director of the Behaviour-Brain-Body Research Centre at the University of South Australia — will be visiting WSU Spokane for the SPRC Seminar Series. Her seminar entitled “Sleeping in the Deep: How the Undersea Environment Impacts Sleep and Performance” will be in person in the Spokane Center for Clinical Research and Simulation (SCRS) room 250 and through Zoom on Thursday, Oct. 27, noon–1 p.m.
Submariners are at risk for impaired cognitive performance and increased errors during operationally critical tasks due to high workload, stress, and fatigue. In the undersea environment submariners often must get by with less-than-optimal sleep. Professor Banks will describe sleep in Australian submarine environments and then outline some of the projects underway to improve sleep, including redesign of the sleeping berths, using sleep and circadian science.
Dr. Banks research is at the nexus of biology (fatigue and circadian rhythms), behavior (individual and team performance), and technology (human machine interface). Her research focuses on the impact of sleep deprivation and shift work on psychological and physiological functioning and how countermeasures may be used to prevent the negative effects of disturbed sleep, in particular work schedules, novel technologies, dietary interventions, napping and caffeine.
We look forward to you joining us in person (SCRS 250) or through Zoom!
Questions/Zoom link? Contact Michelle Sanchez at michelle.r.sanchez@wsu.edu.
