Prof Dr Raymond Cluydts wins EBIA Award

12 Oct '11

4 min read

The European Bedding Industries' Association (EBIA), the umbrella organisation of the bedding industry in Europe with headquarters in Brussels, announced Belgian Prof Dr Raymond Cluydts of the University of Brussels, as the winner of the 2011 EBIA Award. As a prominent and widely respected researcher in the sleep research field, Professor Cluydts has focused on the effects of sleep deprivation in healthy individuals.

As one of the founding fathers of the Belgian Association of Study of Sleep (BASS) Professor Cluydts is convinced that good and state-of-the-art bedding benefits the consumer. With this award, EBIA strives to provide further momentum for Prof Cluydts' sleep research, which assists the bedding industry in permanently improving its products and the quality of sleep, undoubtedly in the interest of the European bedding consumer.

The EBIA Award
Being the European representative of an industry producing quality products aimed at the wellness and comfort of its customers, EBIA created the EBIA Award to promote creativity and innovation within this sector. The process of selecting an award recipient is relatively simple.

Firstly, the national bedding industry associations which are a member of EBIA, are asked to select a potential candidate for the EBIA Award. From this pool containing candidates from all over Europe, EBIA's Board then selects two finalists after which all the Association's members can place their final vote. Next to becoming an honorary member of EBIA, the winner is also rewarded a 5,000 euro grant.

Award Winner
This year, EBIA's members voted in favour of the Belgian Prof Dr Raymond Cluydts.

Having trained in experimental sleep research in the eighties at the US Naval Health Center in San Diego, Prof Dr Raymond Cluydts' research has mainly focused on sleep/wake rhythm disturbances (circadian and homeostatic sleep regulation). Prof Cluydts is the Chairman of the Department of Cognitive and Biological Psychology & Head of the Experimental Sleep Lab at the University of Brussels.

He examines healthy individuals, mostly students who volunteer for duty in his sleep lab. By inducing insomnia in these individuals, it is possible to observe the effects of sleep deprivation. Bad sleep or sleep deficiency can result in a severe lack of attention or even grave errors, potentially giving rise to accidents. A good example is the flooding and subsequent capsize of the Herald of Free Enterprise in the North Sea caused by the chief officer who forgot to shut the bow doors.

Prof Cluydts is also one of the founding fathers and a board member of the Belgian Association for Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine (acronym: BASS). This non-profit organisation promotes research and teaching in the field of sleep as well as the dissemination of knowledge related to sleep. Professor Cluydts has repeatedly stated that sleep researchers would benefit from a better cooperation with the bedding industry. After all, several aspects of sleep have never been investigated, including the effect of one's sleeping environment on the quality of one's sleep.

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