REQUIREMENTS
SLEEP AND CHRONOBIOLOGY
Name of the managing institute (and any contributing institutes): Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Department of Physiology, Department of Pulmonology, Department of Neurology, 1st Department of Paediatrics
Credit value: 2
Number of lessons per week: 2 lecture: 2 practical course: seminar:
Subject type: compulsory course elective course optional course
Academic year: 2025/2026.
Subject code: AOVMAG1155_1A
Name of the course leader: Dr. Róbert Bódizs
Workplace, e-mail address: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, bodizs.robert@ semmelweis.hu
Position: Full professor
Date and registration number of their habilitation: 30. 06. 2014., 01/2014 (Semmelweis University)
Objectives of the subject, its place in the medical curriculum:
Aim of the course: providing up-to-date, scientifically grounded knowledge on the physiological, behavioural, psychological and clinical aspects of sleep-waking states and related chronobiological phenomena. Multidisciplinarity, integrative approaches and the emphasis of rhythmic processes are the defining features of the course. Theoretical lectures are always completed with clinical corners, exemplifying the biomedical relevance of the mechanisms and processes detailed in the presentation. In turn, clinical topics are accompanied by sections termed theoretical relevance, unravelling the modelling consequences of the respective disorders.
Place where the subject is taught (address of the auditorium, seminar room, etc.): NET building
Successful completion of the subject results in the acquisition of the following competencies:
Understanding the core features of biological rhythms and sleep, ability of using chronobiological concepts in understanding medical and behavioural phenomena, knowledge on the defining EEG features of different sleep-waking states, recognizing the main sleep and circadian rhythm disorders, getting involved in sleep and chronobiology research studies
Competencies acquired through the completion of the course:
Understanding the core features of biological rhythms and sleep, ability of using chronobiological concepts in understanding medical and behavioural phenomena, knowledge on the defining EEG features of different sleep-waking states, recognizing the main sleep and circadian rhythm disorders, getting involved in sleep and chronobiology research studies
Course prerequisites: Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Psychology
Number of students required for the course (minimum, maximum) and method of selecting students: 10-25
How to apply for the course: Neptun
List of Topics – Lectures
Week 1: What is sleep? The definition of sleep, rest and sleep, chronobiology, circadian rhythms, nocturnality-diurnality, chronopathology, chronomedicine, chronotherapy. Clinical corner: sleepwalking, subjective (paradoxical) insomnia, sleep paralysis (Róbert Bódizs)
Week 2: How and why we sleep? Circadian, homeostatic and permissive factors in sleep regulation. Ultradian sleep cycles. Sleep phases and sleep stages, sleep regulatory networks in the brain. Clinical corner: sleep homeostasis, neural plasticity and depression (Róbert Bódizs)
Week 3: When we sleep? The circadian molecular clock, clock genes and proteins, biological days and nights, social jetlag, central and peripheral oscillators. Clinical corner: clock gene polymorphisms, chronotypes and circadian rhythm disorders (Krisztina Káldi)
Week 4. Zoom in on sleep: sleep EEG microstructure and oscillations. Infra(slow), delta, theta, alpha, sigma, beta, gamma and ripple oscillations. EEG spectral profiles of sleep waking states. Thalamocortical system and conscious awareness. Clinical corner: measuring consciousness by EEG analysis, sleep EEG oscillations, cognitive abilities and dementia (Róbert Bódizs)
Week 5: What is wakefulness? Wakefulness, arousal, and attention, ARAS, alpha, beta and gamma oscillations and their role in vigilance. The default Mode Network of the brain. Sleepiness and its measurement (pupillometry, alpha attenuation, etc). Clinical corner: ADHD, sleep and sleepiness (Róbert Bódizs)
Week 6: State dissociation and other peculiarities during sleep. Parasomnias: NREM parasomnias and REM sleep behaviour disorder, nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy, aggressive behaviour during sleep, sexsomnia, somniloquy. Theoretical consequences: local sleep, sleepwalking and consciousness (Anna Szűcs)
Week 7: Sleeping at the wrong time. Circadian rhythm disorders. Delayed and advanced sleep phase disorder, non-24-hour sleep phase disorder, irregular sleep phase disorder, shift work. Chronotherapy: jet-lag, light therapy, exogenous melatonin. Theoretical consequences: inclusion of external light and physical activity in sleep-wake modelling (György Purebl, Róbert Bódizs)
Week 8: Getting too much sleep. Hypersomnia: narcolepsy and its forms, idiopathic hypersomnia, Kleine-Levin syndrome, hypersomnia caused by other disorders. Theoretical consequences: orexin and flip-flop regulation of sleep (Anna Szűcs)
Week 9: On the inability to get sleep. Insomnia and its treatment. Chronic and short-term insomnia, secondary insomnia, insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder, insomnia as insufficient sleep homeostasis, insomnia and hyperarousal. Pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy of insomnia, sleep hygiene. Theoretical consequences: learning-dependent and emotional regulation of sleep (György Purebl)
Week 10: What is the role of sleep? The function(s) of sleep. Ecological, restorative, detoxification, memory consolidation, network reorganization and immunological functions. Clinical corner: vaccination and sleep, from circadian desynchronization through sleep loss to weight gain (Róbert Bódizs)
Week 11: Moving while you sleep. Sleep-related movement disorders. Restless leg syndrome, periodic leg movements during sleep, sleep bruxism, rhythmic movements during sleep, leg cramps during sleep, benign sleep myoclonus in infants. Theoretical consequences: movements during wakefulness and sleep (Anna Szűcs)
Week 12: Why and how we dream? Dreams, and dream disorders. The neurobiology and psychology of dreaming, overall formal and content features of dreams, chronobiological features of dreaming, dreaming and mind wandering. Sleep paralysis, nightmares and nightmare disorder, nightmares and psychopathology. Theoretical consequences: lucid dreaming and consciousness (Péter Simor)
Week 13: Breathing space. Sleep-related breathing disorders. Obstructive and central sleep apnoea disorders, hypoventilation, hypoxemia. Sleep depth, time-of-day and breathing during sleep. Theoretical consequences: sleep fragmentation vs sleep loss: the detrimental effects of sleep fragmentation (Gábor Horváth)
Week 14: Sleep like a baby. Sleep-related phenomena and sleep disorders in infants, toddlers, and children. Solitary sleeping and co-sleeping. The slow emergence of the diurnal activity profile, maturation of circadian rhythms, limit setting issues, sudden infant death, other sleep disorders in infancy and childhood. Theoretical consequences: on the anthropology of sleep in infants (Zsófia Lendvai)
Related subjects due to interdisciplinary fields (both compulsory and elective) and potential overlaps between subjects:
Physiology (circadian rhythms, neural oscillations and EEG patterns, the thalamocortical system)
Medical Psychology (sleep disorders, especially insomnia, consciousness and sleep-waking states)
Neurology (hypersomnias of central origin, parasomnia)
Psychiatry (insomnia, depression and sleep)
Attendance requirements; conditions under which students can make up for absences and the method of absence justification:
Successful feedback on 9 out of 14 lectures. The made up for missing feedbacks up to the 50% of the classes: involvement in sleep/chronobiology research activities by an equivalent amount of time: doing individual data recording or analysis (e.g. autorhythmometry).
Form of assessment in the study period:
(including the number, topics and scheduling of oral and written tests, their share in the overall evaluation, make-up tests and improvement tests)
Written tests consisting of a few items focusing exclusively on the information presented in the last week’s lecture at the beginning of the actual lectures (starting from the second lecture) will be implemented. An overall study period test-performance of 75% or greater makes up 25% of the final evaluation.
Number and type of assignments for individual work and the deadline for submission:
Participation in sleep and chronobiology research studies (laboratory or field investigations), data analysis, essay writing. Deadline for submitting individual work (reports or essays): end of the exam period.
Field exercises in sleep research for at least 8 hours in total (students can participate in one of the activities detailed below):
-sleep research by using mobile devices (polysomnography headbands, actigraphy)
-sleep research or sleep medicine in a laboratory setting
-data analysis/digital signal processing in the field of chronobiology and/or sleep research
-cognitive testing of alertness by using specific tools
Requirements for participation in classes and the possibility to make up for absences:
75% of the classes have to be attended (minimum requirement). The made up for absences up to the 50% of the classes: increasing the time spent in sleep/chronobiology research activities by an equivalent amount of time.
Methods to assess knowledge acquisition during term time:
(E.g. homework, reports, mid-term test, end-term test, etc., the possibility of replacement and improvement of test results)
There will be no tests of knowledge acquisition during term time. Improvement of test results can be done upon request of an oral examination.
Requirements for signature: Participation in field exercises
Type of examination: Written exam (single- and multiple-choice questions)
Requirements of the examination:
(In case of a theoretical examination, please provide the topic list; in case of a practical exam, specify the topics and the method of the exam)
- The definition of sleep and chronobiology
- The circadian molecular clock
- Circadian, ultradian, homeostatic and permissive factors of sleep regulation
- Sleep EEG microstructure and oscillations
- Wakefulness, arousal, attention
- The functions of sleep
- Insomnia and its treatment
- Sleep-related breathing disorders
- Hypersomnia
- Circadian rhythm disorders
- Parasomnia
- Dreaming and its disorders
- Sleep-related movement disorders
- Sleep and its disorders in infants, toddlers and children
Method and type of evaluation:
(Method of calculating the final mark based on the theoretical and practical examination. How the mid-term test results are taken into account in the final mark.)
There will be no mid-term tests. The evaluation will be based on the written exam as follows:
– the maximal test score will be 50 points
– grade 5: 40–50 points
– grade 4: 30–40 points
– grade 3: 20–30 points
– grade 2: 10–20 points
– grade 1: 0–10 points
How to register for the examination?: Neptun
Possibilities for exam retake: In case of failure, the student will be given a one-time opportunity to improve his/her performance.
Printed, electronic and online notes, textbooks, guides and literature (URL address for online material) to aid the acquisition of the material:
Allada R, Bass J. Circadian Mechanisms in Medicine. N Engl J Med 2021;384:550-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1802337
Samson DR. Taking the sleep lab to the field: Biometric techniques for quantifying sleep and circadian rhythms in humans. Am J Hum Biol. 2020;e23541. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23541
Koukkari WL, Sothern RB. Introducing Biological Rhythms: A Primer on the Temporal Organization of Life, with Implications for Health, Society, Reproduction and the Natural Environment. New York: Springer, 2006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4701-5
Refinetti R. Circadian Physiology. 3rd ed. CRC Press, 2016.
Bassetti C, McNicholas W, Paunio T (eds). European Sleep Medicine Textbook, 2nd ed. European Sleep Research Society, 2021.
Chokroverty S, Thomas RJ (eds). Atlas of Sleep Medicine. 2nd ed. Elsevier, Saunders. 2013. https://www.elsevier.com/books/atlas-of-sleep-medicine/unknown/978-1-4557-1267-0
Time and Place
Sleep and Chronobiology (AOVMAG1155_1A) 2025/2026 – 2nd Semester
Fridays, 2.00-3.30 p.m. in NET seminar room 6 (NET-SZ.06)
20 February 2026. Orsolya Szalárdy: What is wakefulness?
27 February 2026. Csenge G. Horváth: Zoom in on sleep
6 March 2026. Róbert Bódizs: How and why we sleep?
13 March 2026. György Purebl: On the inability to get sleep
20 March 2026. György Purebl: Sleeping at the wrong time
27 March 2026. Krisztina Káldi: When we sleep?
3 April 2026. Anna Szűcs: Getting too much sleep (online presentation upload + consultation)
10 April 2026. Anna Szűcs: State dissociation and other peculiarities during sleep
17 April 2026. Anna Szűcs: Moving while you sleep
24 April 2026. Péter Simor: Why and how we dream?
1 May 2026. Róbert Bódizs: What is sleep? (online presentation upload + consultation)
8 May 2026. Gábor Horváth: Breathing space
15 May 2026. Róbert Bódizs: What is the role of sleep?
22 May 2026. Katalin Rónai: Sleep like a baby