PhD candidate Danielle Crowley started a year ago on her project in WP3.1. It is time for an update on her findings and plans. Keeping rhythm by Danielle Crowley Fish, like humans, follow light/dark (L/D) cycles of around 24 hours. These cycles or circadian rhythms as they are otherwise known, are responsible for initiating and maintaining an array of behavioural and physiological patterns including breeding, migration, and hormone expression. This is achievable due...

In May 2022, Francesca Borghese started her PhD project at the University of Groningen. She will study how light affects humans, in several ways. She will be supervised by prof. Roelof Hut. Who are you? Hi, my name is Francesca! I was born in Italy and grew up in different countries in Asia and Africa, before moving to Switzerland during my teenage years. I love travelling, discovering new cultures, food and in my free time I enjoy reading, spending time with friends, video games...

PhD candidate Laura Pape has started over a year ago on her project in WP1.4. It is time for an update on her findings and plans. E-health for university students by Laura Pape My project in work package 1.4 is about the effectiveness of a guided e-health intervention on improving sleep and mental in university students. Together with my research team, Dr. Niki Antypa and Prof. Philip Spinhoven from Leiden University, and Prof. Annemieke van Straten and Dr. Sascha Struijs from...

We are happy to announce that our BioClock researchers from different clusters are awarded with several prizes. Congratulations to all! PhD candidate Gali Albalak has won the Piet Visser poster award at the NSWO – Dutch Society for Sleep-Wake Research. Gali Albalak on the most left Kamiel Spoelstra has won the Stairway to Impact Award from NWO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) for his research into the impact of nocturnal light: https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/winners-nwo-science-awards-2022-announced And...

BioClock PhD candidate Gali Albalak and her team at the Leiden University Medical Centre have published a new study which shows that the time of preferred exercise is associated with the risk for cardiovascular health problems, as well as the risk for stroke. People who prefer to exercise in the morning showed a 16% reduced risk for a heart attack and 17% reduced risk for stroke. They have used the UK biobank and included 85.000 participants for their analysis and published the full...

On Monday, November 7th, close to 70 members of the BioClock consortium gathered at (Scheltema) Leiden for a fun and informative day; the cluster meeting. Nearly all PhD and Post doc candidates in short presented the current status of their project and discussed protocols, pilot results and future plans. In 18 short presentations, we met the worlds of writing medical-ethical protocols (to have your research approved prior to the start), how to best catch insects, didactic methods to...

Dear Colleagues, This Special Issue discusses the effects of healthy lifestyles, focusing on diet, sleep, and exercise, on Chronic Diseases. Health is a topic which is both long investigated, but also constantly developing. Among all the factors affecting health, lifestyle is the most controllable and influential factor. A proper diet, moderate exercise, and adequate sleep are the three cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle. Diet has been recognized as a common and modifiable factor...