Supervisory team:
Main
supervisor:
Prof Christine Nicol
(University of Bristol)
Second
supervisor:
Dr Lorna Wilson (University of Bath
)
Prof Toby Knowles
(University of Bristol)
Host institution:
University of Bristol
Project description:
The importance
of a good night’s sleep is universally acknowledged to underpin good health and to
promote effective mental functioning in human beings. Sleep follows a strong circadian rhythm and is
controlled by internal clock
-
like systems and external cues. However, d
efining what is meant by ‘good’
sleep is not straightforward. Simple measures such as the overall duration or number of episodes of
sleep received in a 24h period do not capture the potential importance of the time of day at which
sleep occurs, sequential
patterning effects or the effects of interruptions at different points in the sleep
cycle.
Some of these effects have been captured in mathematical models applied to humans and to other
mammals, but there has been no work to describe sleep quality in birds
. Like mammals, birds can sleep
with both brain hemispheres simultaneously but unlike mammals, birds can also sleep with just half
of their brain at a time, allowing the other half of the brain to remain active and alert.
The first aim of this project will
be to use mathematical models to describe sleep patterns in birds. The
project will study chickens because this work also has commercial relevance. Over 65 billion chickens
are reared worldwide each year and the welfare of these birds concerns many people
. The second aim
of the project will assess the extent to which common management procedures, such as lighting
patterns or different methods of brooding, affect sleep quality in chickens, using the definitions of
sleep quality derived from the initial rese
arch. In humans, poor physical or mental health can not only
arise from poor sleep quality, but can themselves contribute to poor sleep quality, so this project will
also examine the effects of physical health on sleep quality in adult laying hens. The th
ird aim will be
to examine how sleep quality relates to a wide range of non
-
invasive indicators of chicken welfare.
The project has potential industrial relevance. Both supervisors and both institutional departments
have a range of industrial links and con
tacts. The student will be encouraged to make use of these
links, to visit commercial farms and to consider the ways in which the fundamental information derived
in this project can be used to improve animal welfare and the sustainability of the poultry in
dustry