Panel 1

About

I am a sleep scientist working at the Centre for Chronobiology of the University of Basel and its Psychiatric Hospital (UPK) in Switzerland. The effects of daylight and artificial light at night on circadian rhythms and sleep are in the focus of my research interests. Additionally, I am also interested in cognitive processing during healthy sleep and in patients with severe brain injury. Besides this, I am also a sleep therapist (cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia) at the Sleep Clinic of the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel (UPK).

Furthermore, science communication is my passion (overview of outreach activities). Since, May 2023 I am a co-host of the Deutschlandfunk Nova podcast “Über Schlafen“. I am also available as a speaker for events or workshops (references include: F.A. Hoffmann La Roche, Biotherm, Vattenfall, IKEA Schweiz). For more information, please find my CV here.

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Panel 2

News

2023

December

On 22 December, our Registered Report “Effects of calibrated blue–yellow changes in light on the human circadian clock” was published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. Please find the press release from the University of Basel here.

May

On 23 May, the new Deutschlandfunk Nova Podcast “Über Schlafen” was launched, which I am hosting with Ilka Knigge, a science journalist. Every week, we will talk about one exciting topic related to sleep. Because we spend about one third of our lives in this state and still often know so little about it. You can listen to it everywhere, where you can stream podcasts. 

2022

December

My talk at TEDxBasel “How daylight could help you sleep better” has been published. Thanks to all fellow speakers and volunteers for making this a truly unique and enjoyable esperience! Watch here.

November

I am grateful for the Freiwillige akademische Gesellschaft Basel’s Fonds zur Förderung von Lehre und Forschung providing additional funding (CHF 15’600) to the DayCiS study that investigates the effects of daylight and physical activity on circadian rhythms and sleep.

August

My latest publication entitled “Melatonin suppression does not automatically alter sleepiness, vigilance, sensory processing, or sleep” has now been accepted for publication in SLEEP.

June

At the “Psychologie & Gehirn”, the annual meeting of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) Section Biological & Neuropsychology, I received an award for science communcation.

May

I am very excited to announce that I will be a speaker at the TEDxBasel event on 7 May.

March

On 6 March, we had two publications on diurnal rhythms in patients with severe brain injury accepted in SLEEP and Brain Sciences (first author Monika Angerer, University of Salzburg). Congrats and well done, Monika!

2021

December

With my colleague Monika Angerer (University of Salzburg), I have been awareded the Christian-Doppler-Preis of the Land Salzburg 2021 (division Molecular Biosciences and Neurosciences)

I have joined the team of freelance #scicomm trainers at the German National Institute for Science Communication (Nawik). I am looking forward to share my passion for science communication and help others discover and develop their potential.

October

I was delighted to be invited as a guest for “Zwischentöne” on Deutschlandfunk, where, among other aspects, we chatted about sleep, precarious working conditions in academia, and my cello.

August

I am incredibly grateful and happy that my Ambizione” grant will be funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The funding allows me to continue my research at the Centre for Chronobiology at the University of Basel and the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel.

July

Our new publication entitled “Association of transportation noise with sleep during the first year of life: a longitudinal study” has been accepted in Environmental Research.

With Amrei Bahr, Kristin Eichhorn, and Sebastian Kubon, I have written a piece on the #IchBinHanna protests for Nature Human Behaviour. With the hashtag #IchBinHanna, thousands of researchers protest against a German law that forces researchers out (btw. Austria adopted a similar law in May 21).

May

On 19 May, I gave an expert interview in “Die grosse TerraX Show” on ZDF.

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Panel 3

Research

In my research I study cognitive processing during sleep as well as how circadian rhythms brought about by the internal biological clock interact with higher cognitive functions including consciousness. For a short summary of these topics see below.

All publications are open access. If you nevertheless cannot find it or are just too lazy to search for it, just drop me a line and I will be happy to send you the PDF.

Selected Publications

Blume, C., Schmidt, M.H., & Cajochen, C. (2020). Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on human sleep and rest-activity rhythms. Current Biology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.021

Angerer, M., Schabus, M., Pichler, G., Angerer, B., Scarpatetti, M., & Blume, C. (2022). From Dawn to Dusk – Mimicking Natural Daylight Exposure Improves Circadian Rhythm Entrainment in Patients with Severe Brain Injury. SLEEP. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac065

Angerer M., Schabus M., Raml M., Pichler G., Kunz A.B., Scarpatetti M., Trinka E., & Blume C. (2020). Actigraphy in brain-injured patients – A valid measurement for assessing circadian rhythms? BMC Medicine. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/839472

Blume, C., Garbazza, C., Spitschan, M. (2019). Effects of light on human circadian rhythms, sleep, and mood. Somnologie. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11818-019-00215-x

Blume, C., Angerer, M., Raml, M., del Giudice, R., Santhi, N., Pichler, G., Scarpatetti, M., Kunz, A. B., Trinka, E., & Schabus, M. (2019). Healthier Rhythm, Healthier Brain? Integrity of Circadian Melatonin and Temperature Rhythms Relates to the Clinical State of Brain-Injured Patients. European Journal of Neurology.

Blume, C., del Giudice, R., Wislowska, M., Heib, D. P. J., & Schabus, M. (2018). Standing Sentinel during Sleep: Continued Evaluation of Environmental Stimuli in the Absence of Consciousness. NeuroImage.

Blume, C., Lechinger, J., Santhi, N., Giudice, R. d., Gnjezda, M.-T., Pichler, G., Scarpatetti, M., Donis, J., Michitsch, G., & Schabus, M. (2017). Significance of circadian rhythms in severely brain-injured patients: A clue to consciousness? Neurology.

Blume, C., del Giudice, R., Lechinger, J., Wislowska, M., Heib, D. P. J., Hoedlmoser, K., & Schabus, M. (2016). Preferential processing of emotionally and self-relevant stimuli persists in unconscious N2 sleep. Brain and Language.

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Panel 4

Awards & Grants

December 2022 Grant for project costs from the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research (principal investigator; CHF 59.166,00)
December 2023 – November 2025 “Light therapy as add-on therapy tool to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)”. Seed Money funding from the European Campus EUCOR (EUR 34.000,-; role: co-applicant; principal investigator: Prof. Kai Spiegelhalder, University of Freiburg, Germany)
November 2022 Grant for project costs from the Fonds zur Förderung von Lehre und Forschung from the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft (FAG) Basel (CHF 15.600,-; role: principal investigator)
June 2022 Science communication award of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) Section Biological & Neuropsychology
April 2022 Antelope Career Programme, University of Basel (CHF 4.000,-)
April 2022 – March 2026
Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Ambizione grant (04/22-03/26; principal investigator; CHF 930.449,-).
December 2021 Christian-Doppler Award of the Land Salzburg 2021 in the division Molecular Biosciences and Neurosciences (together with Monika Angerer, University of Salzburg).
April 2021 – March 2022 Grant from the Research Fund of the University of Basel for Outstanding Junior Researchers (principal investigator; CHF 79.412,00).
October 2020 Nachwuchsförderpreis Schlafforschung for our work on COVID-19 and Sleep by the German Sleep Society DGSM.
December 2019 Grant from the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research for the LIGHT.Sleep project at the Centre for Chronobiology in Basel (principal investigator; CHF 55.111,00)
June 2019 Grant from the Forschungsförderungsfonds of the Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel for the LIGHT.Sleep project at the Centre for Chronobiology in Basel (principal investigator; CHF 31.500,00)
May 2019 Grant from the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft (FAG) Basel for the LIGHT.Sleep project at the Centre for Chronobiology in Basel (principal investigator; CHF 20.000,00)
January 2019 – March 2021
3-year Schrödinger Fellowship from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF; principal investigator; € 177.805,00)
September 2018 Giselher-Guttmann Price 2018 of the Austrian Society for Neuropsychology (GNPÖ) for our work on circadian rhythms in patients with severe brain injury (€ 500)
Poster Prize of the Young Austrian Neuroscience Association (ANA) at the “Salzburg Neuroscience Day”
May 2017    Young Investigators Award of the University of Salzburg
January 2014 – December 2016 PhD Scholarship from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. (≈ € 49.000)
October 2009 – June 2010 One-year grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (≈ € 14.000)
December 2007 – November 2012 Scholarship from the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes e.V./ German Academic Scholarship Foundation (≈ € 6.200)