Investigative work in our research group focuses on circadian and homeostatic regulation of human sleep, alertness, cognitive performance, mood, memory consolidation and thermoregulation, and applying that knowledge to ageing as well as to sleep and psychiatric disorders. It is our goal to translate our research results into clinical aspects in the field of sleep medicine, psychiatry and occupational health medicine.

Current research interests include:

• Non-visual/non-image forming effects of light on circadian physiology, sleep and cognition
• Cerebral mechanisms underlying the influence of age-related changes in circadian and homeostatic processes on cognition: a functional neuroimaging approach
• Impact of cataract surgery and intra-ocular lens replacement on endocrine and molecular circadian rhythms, sleep and cognitive function in older adults
• Acute and short-term effects of road, railway and aircraft noise exposure on annoyance, sleep disturbances and cardiometabolic risk
• Circadian rhythms and sleep regulation in psychiatric disorders
• Chronotherapy (e.g. light treatment) in psychiatric disorder

Prof. Christian Cajochen is heading the Centre for Chronobiology at the University of Basel. He received his PhD in natural sciences from the ETH in Zürich, Switzerland, followed by a 3-y postdoctoral stay at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. His major research interests include investigative work on the influence of light on human cognition, circadian rhythms and sleep, circadian related disturbances in psychiatric disorders, and age-related changes in the circadian regulation of sleep and neurobehavioral performance. He has held a number of honours and has authored more than a 100 original papers and reviews in his career.

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