In an effort to bring attention to the importance of sleep, astronomer Mark Thompson attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the Longest Marathon Lecture between 11 and 17th September 2021. The existing record is 139 hours 42 minutes and 56 seconds and, amazingly, Mark spoke for 140 hours and 42 minutes. He is now waiting to hear from Guinness on whether his attempt has been validated. During the attempt Mark raised almost £13k for Barnardo’s, engaged with schools around the world through some prepared lesson plans and worked with sleep scientists to explore the impacts of extreme sleep deprivation. The attempt pushed Mark to his psychological limit as he suffered memory loss and hallucinations having just had 3 hours sleep across the 140 hours. 

To learn more about Mark Thompson's work, visit his website here.

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People

Mark Thompson is an astronomer, and one of the presenters on the RTS nominated show Stargazing LIVE. He is also a specialist presenter on the Alan Titchmarsh show and a regular on Radio Five Live. Mark is President of Norwich Astronomical Society, and has worked extensively with local media from newspaper, to radio and TV and his articles have been published in Astronomy Now. His new book ‘A Down to Earth Guide to the Cosmos’ is due for publication on 17th January 2021.

Alejandro Ezquerro-Nassar recently completed a PhD in Psychology at the Consciousness and Cognition Lab, University of Cambridge (2021). His research involves the use of EEG and statistical modelling techniques to investigate the neural-cognitive dynamics of the sleep onset period as well as the phenomenology of hypnagogic states. He also serves as Research Impact Manager for Dream in Cosmos, generating and maintaining collaborations between researchers and artists. He currently supervises the knowledge transfer and public engagement activities for the Dream in Cosmos group.

Tristan Bekinschtein is a biologist, Master in Neurophysiology and PhD in Neuroscience, Buenos Aires University. In 2011 he founded the Consciousness and Cognition Lab at the Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge. He is a Wellcome Trust Fellow and a Turing Fellow. Tristan works on the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness, primarily on the fragmentation of cognition as we lose consciousness while falling asleep or getting sedated; on the cognitive and neural differences between conscious states; and on the interaction between attention and consciousness in health and disease.

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