Sleep scientist Russell Foster: ‘I want to take the anxiety around sleep away’

The Oxford professor has studied our circadian rhythms for decades - and says much of what we think we know is wrong

Born in Aldershot in 1959, Russell Foster is a professor of circadian neuroscience at Oxford and the director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. For his discovery of non-rod, non-cone ocular photoreceptors he received numerous awards including the Zoological Society scientific medal. His latest book - the first he has written without a co-author - is Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health.

What is circadian neuroscience?
It's the fundamental understanding of how our biology ticks on a 24-hour basis. But also it's bigger than that - it's an understanding of how different structures interact within the brain and how different genes and their protein products generate a complex behaviour. And that is then embedded throughout our entire biology.