2026

July

In the end of July, a book on cognitive-behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) that I had written with Prof. Kai Spiegelhalder (Freiburg) was published.

April

I was a guest in one of the most popular German interview podcasts: “Hotel Matze”. You find it on all podcast platforms, for example on Spotify.

March

Our new manuscript entitled “No Evidence for Seasonal Variations in Fatigue, Sleepiness and Insomnia Symptoms: Spring Fatigue Is a Cultural Phenomenon Rather Than a Seasonal Syndrome” (link) has been published in the Journal of Sleep Research. Press release from the University of Basel in German and English.

January

Our manuscript, “Delayed, Reduced and Redundant: Information Processing of Prediction Errors during Human Sleep”, has finally found a home and has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Neuroscience.

2025

December

The year has been a bumpy road – a year marked by great hopes and sharp disappointments. Amid the challenges though, I encountered people and experiences that enrich my life in many ways, and for which I am deeply grateful.

2024

November

On 18th November 2024, I gave my habilitation lecture at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Basel. The topic for the lecture, which had to be unrelated to my research, was “Nature vs. Concrete: How Environment Shapes Mental Health Risk”. 

September

For our Deutschlandfunk Nova Podcast “Über Schlafen“, the science journalist Ilka Eliana Knigge and I have received the award for science communication from the German Psychological Society (DGPs). The Prize for Science Journalism and Science Communication is awarded by the DGPs to individuals or institutions that have made an outstanding contribution to the presentation of psychological research in the media. The award was presented to the two winners on 16 September 2024 at the DGPs Congress in Vienna.

June

For our Registered Report “Effects of calibrated blue–yellow changes in light on the human circadian clock” (Blume et al., 2023) published in Nature Human Behaviour in December 2023, I have received the “Forschungspreis Biopsychologie 2024” from the Division of Biological Psychology and Neuropsychology of the German Psychological Society.

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.

Continue reading “News” →

In my research I study how factors characterising life in modern societies (i.e., the availability of light at night, lack of daylight, little physical activity, rising nocturnal temperatures) affect circadian rhythms brought about by the internal biological clock and sleep. Additionally, I am studying how cognitive processing changes during sleep, a naturally occurring state of unconsciousness. In clinically oriented studies, I have also combined the two aspects studying for instance whether ambient light can modulate cognitive functions in severely brain-injured patients and thus benefit consciousness. For a short summary of these topics see below.

Selected Publications

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.

Blume C., Cajochen C., Schöllhorn I., Slawik H.C., & Spitschan M. (2023). Effects of calibrated blue-yellow changes in light on the human circadian clock. Nature Human Behaviour. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01791-7

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

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.

Continue reading “Research” →

October 2024	For the research project “Seasonal variations in fatigue, daytime sleepiness, and sleep”, I have received 5386 € funding from the German Sleep Society (DGSM). Many thanks to the DGSM!
September 2024	“Preis für Wissenschaftskommunikation” 2024 for our podcast “Über Schlafen” of the German Psychological Society (DGPs)
June 2024	“Forschungspreis Biopsychologie 2024” of the German Psychological Society (DGPs) Section Biological & Neuropsychology
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)
December 2022	Grant for project costs from the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological research (principal investigator; CHF 59.166,-)
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)