Don’t sleep for three days and the Psychology department will pay you £50 for it

Being paid to not sleep sounds like a student’s dream job, but now there’s a study based in the Lincoln psychology department that aims to do just that. Research assistant Daniel Wenman, the man in charge of the experiment, gave us the lowdown.

The prof behind the experiment says: “Broadly speaking, the study is designed to investigate whether some people are more genetically disposed to coping with the effects of sleep deprivation.

The study pays out £50 upon completion, but it requires a little more work than just staying up and watching Comedy Central re-runs.

For one, you need to be male (“the genetic analysis is easier to do with male samples”), aged at least 18 and have a naturally healthy sleep pattern of at least five hours.

After emailing Mr Wenman and setting up a date, you then need to provide a saliva sample. This is then sent to Leeds to be analysed; only if participants meet the criteria do they enter the final stage of the study.

The remaining men are given an actiwatch and told to wear it throughout the day.

Daniel says:“It’s very sensitive and picks up the slightest of movements. We use that to monitor whether they’re awake.

“Another piece of equipment we use is the sleep profiler, essentially a mini EEG machine. We ask them to only wear the sleep profiler at night, and for the following three nights to cut down their sleep to four hours a night.

“As long as they have made a concerted effort then they receive the £50.”