Open lectures

In May 2023, we have organized two open lectures centered around the theme 'Narcolepsy disorder'.
Below you can find an impression of the two evenings and hopefully, we will see everybody during our next activity!

Prof. Dr. Gert Jan Lammers

May 8th 2023

The first open evening was kicked off by Prof. Dr. Gert Jan Lammers, Professor of Sleep Medicine at Leiden University Medical Center. During this evening, Mr. Lammers gave us a lecture about narcolepsy and the research he has done in this field.

He started by telling us more about the symptoms of this sleep disorder, how to recognize them, and how to differentiate between different sleep disorders. In addition, he told us about the different types of narcolepsy, and how people develop narcolepsy. Then Mr. Lammers told us more about his research, which was very interesting. Together with researchers from Stanford, he found the neurotransmitter hypocreting, which patients lack in this sleep disorder. worked with researchers from Stanford to find the neurotransmitter hypocretin that patients lack in this sleep disorder. 

In addition, he talked a lot about the medications that can be used to relieve symptoms in these patients, such as antidepressants and GHB. He also told us about current studies that can improve current medications and about the post-mortem brain studies that he was involved in, to investigate narcolepsy. 

In short, Prof. Dr. Gert Jan Lammers told us a lot about this rare sleep disorder! It was an interesting combination of clinical examples and results from studies. We found it a very informative evening!

Dr. Martin Dresler

May 15th 2023

On May 15, Dr. Martin Dresler came to tell us more about lucid dreaming. Dr. Dresler works at the Donders Institute and is a principal investigator at the Sleep & Memory Lab there.

On this informative evening, he told us more about sleep in general, the phenomenon of lucid dreams, what they can bring us, and even how you might induce them. In addition, he told about the latest, most important and just the coolest developments in the research field on sleep and dreams. Moreover, he taught us how lucid dreaming could help with sleep disorders or intense nightmares.

We really enjoyed this inspiring evening and we are very grateful to Dr. Martin Dresler for his time.