For thousands of years, we’ve regarded sleep as nothing more than a way to charge our batteries. But now, thanks to revolutionary new technology, innovative animal research and extraordinary advances in genetics, that view is about to change. Join Dr. Jennifer Gardy as she investigates what happens when we close our eyes at night in While You Were Sleeping.
Does sleep control our weight, allow us to make memories and help us fight off diseases like Alzheimer’s? Around the world researchers are attempting to penetrate the mysterious world of the sleeping brain to answer these questions – answers that could change our lives.
From playing Chopin at Harvard University to playing with puppets in Germany, from Las Vegas, the city that never sleeps, to an isolation chamber in the Colorado Rockies, Dr. Grady goes on a remarkable journey to find out why we sleep, and activity that takes up a third of our lives.
“I was amazed to discover the extraordinary role sleep plays in our waking lives,” says Dr. Gardy. “I’ve explored everything from hypothermia to tornadoes, but sleep is one of the most fascinating subjects I’ve ever examined. I’ll never skip a good night’s sleep again”
As neurologist Dr. Kenneth Wright says: “Even the Greek philosophers wondered why we needed to sleep. If sleep wasn’t important, it’s probably one of the most significant mistakes that evolution ever made.”
View Credits
Director
Jeff Semple
Host & Narrator
Dr. Jennifer Gardy
Executive Producer
Dugald Maudsley
Writers
Scott Harper
David Murray
Executive Story Consultant
Dugald Maudsley
Editor
David Murray
Director of Photography
Terry Zazulak
Sound Recordist
Michael Kennedy
Composer
Alex Khaskin
Researcher
Monika Delmos
Production Manager
Diane Marcotte
Production Coordinator
Gillian Main
Visual Effects Designer
Mark Alberts
Post Production Supervisor/Online Editor
Eric Wiegand
Visual Researcher
Elspeth Domville
Additional Camera
Jerry Vienneau
Gerald Lewis
Blinky Semple
Re-recording Mixer
Grant Edmonds
Sfx Editor
Andy Frech
Assistant Sfx Editor
Quinn Edmonds
Colour Correction
Technicolor Creative Services Canada Inc.
Publicist
David Mccaughna
Archival Material Courtesy Of
Dr. Scott Killgore
Infield Fly Productions Inc.
Pond5
Shutterstock
University of Rochester
Special Thanks
Center for Sleep and Cognition
George Ko
Ghryll Murphy
James Simon
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
Oregon Health & Science University
Horseshoe Valley Resort
Université De Montréal
Cannery Casino
University of Colorado Boulder
Harvard University
Kathrin Dannert
For Infield Fly Productions
Producer
Dugald Maudsley
Business Affairs
Gillian Main
Production Accountant
Rebecca Humble Mcculloch,
Legal Counsel
David Steinberg,
For the CBC
Director of Production
Alexandra Lane
Director of Finance
Julie Lawlor
Executive in Charge of Production
Sue Dando
Executive Director Unscripted Content
Jennifer Dettman
With the Participation Of
The Canadian Media Fund
The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit
Ontario Media Development Corporation
Rogers Telefund
Produced in Association With
The Nature of Things
With David Suzuki
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
cbc.ca/natureofthings
(Copyright 2016)
@ 2016 IF: Myth 5 Productions Inc.
View Distributor
TVF International
375 City Road
London EC1V 1NB
United Kingdom
+44 20 7837 3000
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