Chronotypes: Is it better to be a night owl or an early bird?

Our preferred sleeping patterns affect both our mental health and our productivity. To make the most of your time and your energy, it is therefore essential to understand your chronotype. Human chronotypes roughly fall into two broad categories: the early risers and the late risers. As someone who has always been a morning lark, I … Read More

Altered states of consciousness: the elusiveness of the mind

Altered states of consciousness may immediately bring to mind psychedelics or hypnosis, but there are many ways to induce such non-ordinary states. But first, a conundrum. In order to define altered states of consciousness, we need to ask: what is an ordinary state of consciousness? Because scientists can’t agree on an answer to this question, … Read More

Environmental psychology: what to put on your bedside table

The environment around us shapes us as individuals. Environmental psychology focuses on the interplay between people and their surroundings: how our environment affects our behaviour, our performance, and our well-being. While environmental psychology is used in many fields such as interior design, architecture, retail, education and more, I want to briefly explore its implications applied … Read More

Science-based tips to sleep better

Sleeping is strange. We spend on average a third of our life asleep. That’s time we’re not spending working, socialising, or reproducing. Yet, sleep is necessary to our survival. While it can be tempting to spend as much time awake as possible so we can be productive, not getting enough sleep is actually detrimental to … Read More