Project: Sleep restriction

Training in Munich

Training provided by Prof. Pollmächer at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and at the Center of Mental Health in Ingolstadt.

These laboratories are specialized in the study of immunological aspects of sleep restriction and treatment of sleep disorders. At the Munich facility there is also one the few places in the world where combined studies of EEG and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) can be performed in parallel. In addition to heading a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Prof. Pollmächer is also Professor of Psychiatry at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and head of the Centre of  Mental Health at the Klinikum Ingolstadt, a huge inpatient and outpatient facility which includes a 4-bed clinical sleep laboratory. Moreover, Prof. Pollmächer is a member of the Educational Task Force of the German Sleep Research Society and, as a member of the ESRS board he has coordinated the ESRS teaching activities (see also above), and he will continue to develop the ESRS teaching program as the President of the ESRS.

In this framework trainees will have extensive opportunities on a practical, theoretical and academic level learn general and specific aspects of sleep research and sleep medicine. In more detail the following areas of training will be covered: Technical aspects of polysomnography, diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders, combining polysomnographic techniques with high frequency blood sampling, complex and long-term polygraphic recordings, combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and EEG recording, visual sleep staging, EEG spectral analysis and sleep studies in animals. Moreover, the trainees will have the opportunity to attend specialized courses for the sophisticated analysis of sleep-EEG and fMRI data.

For doctoral student detailed education and research plans are developed on an individual basis. Progress is monitored continuously to early identify obstacles and to improve the overall approach. Doctoral students either enter PhD programs at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich through Prof. Pollmächers appointment as Professor of Psychiatry, or the enter programs at the Universities of Konstanz, Regensburg or Lübeck through cooperation agreements.

Also for post-doctoral students detailed education and research plans are developed on an individual basis, and again progress is monitored continuously to early identify obstacles and to improve the overall approach. Every post-doc has his personal tutor (either Prof. Pollmächer or a senior scientist). All trainees will participate in the regular group meetings and in a project group sleep research established at the Max Planck Institute to coordinate the work of all research groups interested in sleep and related fields.