The Relationship Between Sleep & Cognitive Functioning

Episodic foresight refers to the ability to imagine future scenarios and use this imagining to guide future-directed behaviour. It plays a critical role in many complex activities of daily living (e.g., managing finance, shopping), and as such is considered a key predictor of broader wellbeing. Likewise, social cognition is important across the lifespan. Episodic foresight and sleep have been known to deteriorate with age. Therefore, we are interested in understanding how social cognition, sleep and episodic foresight are related to each other over the course of the lifespan.

Participation in this study will involve two testing sessions (two hours and one hour respectively) and wearing a sleep watch for seven nights in between. Testing is conducted at the University of Queensland, where complimentary parking is available. You will receive a $60.00 Coles/Myers Gift card as a thank you for your time.

To be eligible, you must:

1. Be aged 60+
2. Be a native English speaker, or have a high level of English proficiency
3. Have normal or corrected to normal vision
4. In the past 12 months have no diagnosis of the following:
   a) Serious psychiatric illness (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizophrenia)
   b) Neurological disorder (e.g., epilepsy, brain tumor)
   c) Neurodegenerative disorder (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease)
   d) Sleep disorder (e.g., Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Insomnia)

To register your interest please email either Olivia Demichelis (o.demichelis@uq.edu.au) or Kate McKay (k.mckay@uqconnect.edu.au)