Cooperation with KNUST in Ghana

Student team conducts research on sleep hygiene

What else?

The second key element is a short set of stretches and exercises. This helps to get the blood flowing in the morning. The video presents short exercise routines for participants to do on the day. Each daily video is a bit different. There are also tips and tricks such as going out into the sun when you get up before doing anything else or just raising the blinds. Or stop drinking coffee eight or 10 hours before going to bed because that’s how long it takes for the body to process it. You can start establishing little habits like these – along with your regular sleeping routine and the small exercise programs. All of those things are briefly introduced in the short videos.

What do you want to achieve with your test subjects?

By accompanying them over the 30-day period, the researchers want to shorten the time it takes them to fall asleep, reduce the number of times they wake during the night, boost recovery and reduce the feeling of tiredness in the daytime.

You’re not doing this research alone. Who is behind the project?

Along with me, seven other students are involved. We really have a little bit of everything that TUM has to offer. One colleague is studying sports science, which is the closest field to our research topic. The rest of us are from aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, informatics, physics, chemistry and biology. It is this diversity in terms of subject areas, among many other things, that defines the project and the Junge Akademie.

What kind of support is the Junge Akademie providing in the project process?

All of us students either submitted unsolicited applications or were nominated for the project. That means that we were a mixed bunch at the start. There was no specific idea. The Junge Akademie supported us in the process of finding an idea. There are also workshops on project management, study design and implementation and handling research data, for example. We have been learning all of those things as the project has continued. They’re useful for our actual studies as well.

And how did the cooperation with the university in Ghana come about?

You could call it a lucky accident. Shortly before the project started, a delegation from KNUST was visiting Munich. That’s how we first got talking with them.

Because they found the project so exciting?

Well, sleep deficiency is a cross-cultural problem. The Ghanaian professor who we’re in touch with was more excited than anyone because she sees this topic as extremely important in the context of mental health. She told us that she herself never gets enough sleep and that this causes stress. She sees the same thing with her students. Mental health suffers significantly – and sleep is something that people can at least easily work on.