Overnight sleep studies · Circadian rhythm · Sleep environment
Sleep science,
measured
one night
at a time.
We run a small sleep laboratory in Shenzhen. Volunteers spend the night with us; we record what their bodies do while they sleep, and we publish what we learn. No gadgets for sale here — the lab is the product.
A typical night in the lab
Hypnogram, one volunteer, one night. Deep sleep (N3) clusters early; REM lengthens toward morning. Every study we run produces one of these, scored by hand, not by an app.
01 — Studies
What we study
Light after dark
How evening light — room lamps, screens, street light through the window — shifts sleep onset and morning alertness. 38 volunteers, 2024.
2024Room temperature & deep sleep
Whether a cooler bedroom actually buys more deep sleep, or just feels like it does. Measured with EEG, not with a questionnaire.
2023–24Shift work & the body clock
Night-shift workers who sleep in daylight: what their circadian rhythm does over a working week, and what helps them recover on days off.
2022–23Snoring, breathing & morning headaches
Overnight breathing patterns in habitual snorers, and how often a morning headache turns out to be a sleep-breathing problem.
Ongoing02 — Method
How a night works
- Arrive at 21:00. Dinner is finished, phones go on charge outside the room. A technician fits the sensors — EEG, eye movement, chin muscle, breathing, heart rate, oxygen.
- Lights out at 23:00. You sleep in a normal bed, in a quiet, dark room. A technician watches the traces from the next room all night.
- Wake at 07:00. Sensors come off, you fill in a two-minute morning form while the night is still fresh, and you go to work.
- Scoring. Every 30 seconds of the night is scored by a trained scorer, then checked by a second one. Disagreements are settled by discussion, not by averaging.
03 — Findings
Things we keep finding
“Most people who say they ‘barely slept’ actually slept six hours — they just remember the waking parts. The night feels worse than the recording shows.”
“A dark room beats a gadget. In our studies, blackout conditions moved sleep onset more than any device we tested.”
“The worst nights in the lab are rarely about the mattress. They are about a mind that will not stop rehearsing the day.”
04 — The lab
A small lab, on purpose
Four bedrooms, one control room, nine staff. We keep it small so that every volunteer gets the same technician from arrival to morning, and every night gets scored by a person who was in the building. The lab is part of ISLEEPS, a Shenzhen sleep company; the lab itself does research, not sales.
- Bedrooms
- 4
- Staff
- 9
- Since
- 2018
- City
- Shenzhen
05 — Contact
Volunteer, or ask us something
We recruit volunteers a few times a year, and we answer questions from readers and students whenever we can. Write to the lab — a person replies, usually within two working days.
AISLEEP Lab · Shenzhen, China · Part of ISLEEPS