PY7001 - Circadian Rhythms and Sleep

You will attend weekly sessions that will provide the framework for the development of understanding based on wider reading. This module involves diverse learning activities, including brief lecture-style presentations, discussion groups on real-world case studies and student-led tasks. You will experience and reflect on controversial issues in the discipline. Independent study will give you further opportunity to enhance skills in critical analysis and explore key theoretical underpinnings and practical contexts relating to professional practice.

The module tutor will support you by making a variety of student resources linked to the lectures and assessments available on the eLearning Portal (e.g. PowerPoint slides, lecture handouts) along with links to resources to encourage further exploration of specific research topics. A discussion board on the eLearning Portal will be available for students to pose and respond to questions among peers and to the module tutor. This enhances collegiality and means that support is available to all students. The module tutor will set aside fixed office consultation hours available for one-to-one or small group appointments each week if students need direct contact for further explanation. Technology-enabled learning will be implemented through the use of Panopto recording software, online submission and marking of the summative assessment, along with the incorporation of different media formats into the lectures and seminars.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
• K&U1: Critically discuss a range of conceptual/theoretical frameworks in the field of sleep and chronobiology.
• K&U2: Demonstrate how to apply integrated experiential and scientific knowledge in sleep and chronobiology to address real-world challenges to human health

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• IPSA1: You will take charge of your own career development learning, through critical self-evaluation and reflection on the relevance of the module for career enhancement and future learning.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• PVA1: You will develop and reinforce the characteristics of a Northumbria graduate by building research skills to contribute to knowledge generation and dissemination, demonstrating awareness of ethical principles.

Formative assessment will include multi-choice quizzes based on clinical case studies. You will also be supported in your evaluation of primary papers via group discussions in which you will review some key journal articles. Feedback will be provided in class for exercises.
Summative assessment:
The summative assessment consists of two individual pieces of work:
Part 1 – 50%: a critical literature review, directed to evaluate critically the evolution of knowledge in a topic covered during the discussion sessions, highlighting scientific consensus, gaps and future directions. It will allow students to demonstrate their achievement of learning outcomes K&U1, PVA1. 1500 words.
Part 2 – 50%: Closed-book written Exam (60 minutes). It will allow students to further demonstrate their achievement of learning outcomes K&U2, IPSA1. Individual feedback will be provided in written form for every assessment, along with cohort level general feedback.

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This module will introduce you to topics in the sleep sciences and chronobiology field, offering an updated perspective on its nature, to whom it is for, how it is done and what formal education and training are necessary to act as successful researchers. You will explore the biological basis of sleep, biological rhythms and the frontier between health and disease. Associated themes such as the demographic and research aspects of sleep and chronobiology are also outlined. This module will engage you in an active approach to bridge the gap between scientific and experiential knowledge. Emphasis will be given not only to the current knowledge but also to the scientific process and the social-cultural-historical contexts that drive scientific development, allowing for a better understanding of key concepts and critical analysis of the scientific method. This introductory module also aims to introduce the broad areas of expertise and research in sleep science and chronobiology, also focusing on sleep and chronobiology research in populations of developing countries, as well as socioeconomic, racial, gender-related, and cultural disparities. Intersections with other fields of science, clinical approaches, and pertinent temporal organisation of our society will also be covered by this module.