Sleep Forum

On October 19, 2022, two rounds of the interdisciplinary forum for preDP1 and preDP2 students devoted to the subject of sleep took place. The first was opened by the headteacher Anna Sobala-Zbroszczyk. She refered to Jan Kochanowski’s Laments and sleep as a metaphor of death, and to the figure of Konrad from Adam Mickiewicz’s “Dziady” and sleep as a rescue for his soul, for which good and evil spirits fight for while he is sleeping. The IB coordinator, Tomasz Mazur, recalled the sentence from Plutarch’s collection “Moralia” that the sage can be recognized by the fact that he does not sin even in a dream. Developing the thought of the ancient Stoic, he emphasized the salutary effect of sleep on the well-being of students and its role in organizing the knowledge acquired during the day.

Students prepared the result of their work in the form of presentations, films and podcasts. They approached the subject of sleep from a spiritual, scientific and personal perspective. They prepared reports about the meaning of dreams in history, in different cultures, about prophetic dreams, about hypnosis, sleepwalking, and lucid dreaming. They analyzed the process itself, emphasizing the impact of good-quality sleep on human health, and warned against the dangerous effects of neglecting insomnia or the use of methamphetamine. The films showed students incorporating in their own lives the routine associated with the sleep of famous figures from history or the present day, and experimenting with not sleeping for some time. At the end, all participants completed the questionnaires. Project teams will be awarded in three competition categories: for the best quality, the highest interdisciplinarity factor and for the craziest presentation. Congratulations to the creators!

(text: Beata Ciacek; photos: Beata Ciacek)