Publications from K.Wulff

• Cuthbertson Fiona M, Peirson Stuart N, Wulff Katharina, Foster Russell G, and Downes Susan M (2009) Blue light-filtering intraocular lenses: review of potential benefits and side effects. J Cataract Refract Surg, 35(7):1281-97.

• Wulff Katharina, Porcheret Kate, Cussans Emma, and Foster Russell G (2009) Sleep and circadian rhythm disturbances: multiple genes and multiple phenotypes. Curr Opin Genet Dev, 19(3):237-46.

• Mukhopadhyay Suman, Fineberg Naomi A, Drummond Lynne M, Turner Joanne, White Sarah, Wulff Katharina, and Ghodse Hamid (2008) Delayed sleep phase in severe obsessive-compulsive disorder: a systematic case-report survey. CNS Spectr, 13(5):406-13.

• Zaidi Farhan H, Hull Joseph T, Peirson Stuart N, Wulff Katharina, Aeschbach Daniel, Gooley Joshua J, Brainard George C, Gregory-Evans Kevin, Rizzo Joseph F3, Czeisler Charles A, Foster Russell G, Moseley Merrick J, and Lockley Steven W (2007) Short-wavelength light sensitivity of circadian, pupillary, and visual awareness in humans lacking an outer retina. Curr Biol, 17(24):2122-8.

• Wulff Katharina, Joyce Eileen, Middleton Benita, Dijk Derk-Jan, and Foster Russell G (2006) The suitability of actigraphy, diary data, and urinary melatonin profiles for quantitative assessment of sleep disturbances in schizophrenia: a case report. Chronobiol Int, 23(1-2):485-95.

Systematic long-term activity monitoring has begun to reveal highly heterogeneous time courses of sleep and activity as illustrated in colour double plotted actograms.

Periods of sleep and activity are timed to occur at specific phases of the day: We are active during the day and sleep during the night. Inappropriately timed periods of sleep and activity can greatly compromise our well-being and quality of life. In our field studies on sleep disturbances in patients with mental problems, we found striking timing abnormalities in physiology and sleep-wake behaviour.

The aims of our research are to elucidate the links between circadian processes, sleep and emotions, to understand the function of sleep for mental well-being, and to define how such insight can be used for therapeutic interventions. We are developing experimental approaches aimed at identifying correlates of emotional processing during sleep.

I studied biology at the Free University Berlin and completed a PhD in biology at the Charite, Humboldt University Berlin, studying the ontogeny of circadian rhythms and sleep in neonates, their temporal adaptation to, and their influence on the well-established parental sleep-wake patterns. In 2002 I joined the group of Russell Foster at Imperial College London on a EU Marie Curie Fellowship to establish new links between basic circadian science and human clinical sleep research, studying abnormal sleep and circadian rhythms in patients with mental disorders. I am currently Senior Research Scientist at the University of Oxford with particular interest in the relationship between chronobiology of sleep and emotional processing in mood and cognitive disorders.