Department of Anthropology
The Parent-Infant Sleep Lab is a research lab of the Department of Anthropology. It is the home for a group of researchers examining various aspects of infant and child sleep and parenting behaviour. The lab itself was opened in 2000, while the research programmes it houses have been in operation since 1995. The Sleep Lab provides opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students to become involved in our research, and we welcome enquiries. As our research team has grown our research focus has broadened and we are now involved in projects examining several aspects of adult sleep in addition to that of parents and their children
Information can be found here on completed projects, publications and talks given by members of the Sleep Lab Research Team, together with information for participants on current research projects. The resource section provides links to policy documents and other websites, together with research news and updates.
Published online Feb 20th 2012 in Pediatrics Ball, Moya, Fairley, Westman, Oddie, Wright (2012) Bed and sofa-sharing practices in a UK bi-ethnic population
New Publication: Ball, Helen L. 2012. The latest on bed-sharing and breastfeeding. Community Practitioner 85(1): 29-31.
New Publication: Charlotte Russell et al (2012) Use of interactive telephone technology for longitudinal data collection in a large trial Contemporary Clinical Trials 33(2): 364-368
New Publication: Kristin Tully (Klingaman) and Helen Ball (2011) Trade-offs underlying maternal breastfeeding decisions: a conceptual model. Maternal and Child Nutrition, early view online
New publication: Ball, Moya, Fairley, Westman, Oddie, Wright (2011) Infant care practices related to sudden infant death syndrome in South Asian and White British families in the UK Paediatric & Perinatal Epidemiology [Early View Online]
New publication: Ball, Ward-Platt, Howel, Russell (2011) Randomised trial of sidecar crib use on breastfeeding duration (NECOT) Archives of Disease in Childhood 96:360-364
Upcoming talks
Dr Charlotte Russell will be speaking at Lactation Consultants of Great Britain Annual Conference, Derbyshire on June 22nd 2012
Prof Helen Ball, Dr Charlotte Russell & Dr Alanna Rudzik will all be speaking at the Developmental Physiology Conference at Kilworth House in Leicestershire, June 21-22 2012*
Prof Helen Ball, Dr Charlotte Russell & Dr Alanna Rudzik will all be speaking at the Sleep, Infancy and Mothering Conference in Durham on June 14th 2012
Prof Helen Ball will be speaking at the GOLD-12 conference on May 4th 2012
Dr Charlotte Russell will be speaking at The Biological Norm Breastfeeding Awareness Conference, Dorset HealthCare University Foundation Trust, Bournemouth on May 4th 2012
Prof Helen Ball will be speaking at the 2012 MAMA Conference in Troon, April 26-27 April 2012
Helen Ball will be speaking at the Ohio Annual Breastfest Conference March 16-17 2012
Prof Helen Ball will be speaking at TAMBA Twin Clinics in Belfast on Nov 4 2011, Jan 27 2012, and May 11th 2012
Prof Helen Ball will be speaking with Janette Westman at the 2011 UNICEF Baby Friendly Conference 24-25 November in Liverpool
Sleep Lab staff news
Congratulations to Dr Caroline Jones (PhD May 2011) who was recently appointed as Senior Researcher in Primary Care at Oxford University
Congratulations to Dr Anna Cronin-de-Chavez (PhD Nov 2011) who was recently appointed as Research Fellow - Cold weather, fuel poverty and children in the Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University
Ms Catherine Taylor has been awarded an ESRC Overseas University Travel Award to spend 3 months working with Prof Miriam Labbok at the Carolina Global Breastfeeding Institute
Dr Lane Volpe (PhD May 2010) has been awarded a Durham Business Creation Fellowship for 1 year commencing Jan 2011
Caroline Jones was awarded the Royal Society of Medicine Prize for best student presentation at the British Sleep Society Annual Conference, September 2010
Dr Kristin Klingaman (PhD Jan 2010) has been awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Developmental Science at University of North Carolina
Ms Caroline Jones has been awarded an ESRC Overseas University Travel Award to spend 3 months working with Dr Judith Owens at her Pediatric Sleep Clinic, Brown University, Rhode Island, USA.
Publications, past talks and other news
Prof Helen Ball was invited to give a keynote talk at the MAINN conference, 8-10 June 2011 in Grange-over-Sands
Prof Helen Ball was invited to give a guest lecture at Notre Dame University, Indiana, April 11-14th 2011
Prof Helen Ball was invited to speak at the Spanish Congress on Breastfeeding in Avila, Spain, 7-9 April 2011
Prof Helen Ball was invited to speak at the Journée Internationale de l'allaitement (JIA) in Paris on 25th March 2011
Prof Helen Ball visited the new Celje Health College in Slovenia 6-10th March 2011 on an Erasmus Staff Exchange and spoke at their conference on Infant Sleep
Prof Helen Ball spoke at the UNICEF UK BFI Conference in Harrogate on 8-9th December 2010. Talk title = Nurturing as nature intended: an evolutionary perspective on lactation and breastfeeding
Caroline Jones and Helen Ball gave presentations in a symposium on Anthropological Perspectives on Child Sleep, organised by Caroline, at the International Paediatric Sleep Association Conference in Rome, Dec 3rd 2010
Prof Helen Ball spoke at the Womb to World — Sleep behaviours Conference in London on 26th October 2010
See Helen's new article in LLL online magazine Breastfeeding Today
Helen appeared on a Mumsnet Online Chat on June 15th 2010 for Universities Week Activities across the UK
Click here to see Helen's Mumsnet Chat!
Breastfeed in your sleep: a cartoon by Kate Evans
Contact Details
Parent-Infant Sleep Lab
Ebsworth Building
Queen's Campus
Durham University
Stockton-on-Tees,
TS17 6BH
Tel: 0191 334 0260
Email: sleep.lab@dur.ac.uk
