Introduction to the three workshop sessions by the session Chairs.

1. Decoding biological age Biological clocks represent quantifiable biomarkers of ageing and can provide measurable changes in biological ageing and its manipulations to restore good health. Sleep is a vital part of human life and the organism’s natural mechanism for functional recovery and maintaining homeostasis from the cell to the system’s level. In this session, we will discuss the concept of biological clocks and how this approach can be used to determine whether circadian misalignment, poor general sleep behaviour, or impaired sleep affect biological ageing. Conversely, we will discuss how accelerated biological ageing might be reflected by sleep and circadian parameters, which are known to be highly sensitive to ageing, and to most age-related disorders.
2. Augmenting sleep for functional restoration New advances in invasive and non-invasive neuro-technologies enable researchers to target specific aspects of sleep which, in turn, affect health and performance across functional domains. However, we are only beginning to understand which neural and non-neural sleep features are relevant for health and whether augmenting these features bolsters molecular, physiological, or psychological factors of health resilience, supports recovery from functional impairment, or protects against age-related decline. In this session, experts from various fields will discuss new approaches for mechanistically linking sleep and health/disease and targeting these mechanisms with personalized sleep interventions which can be based on neuro-technology, electroceuticals, pharmacology, or behaviour.
3. Extending healthspan Characterizing, measuring, and targeting biological ageing could impact healthy longevity and contribute to restoring or maintaining homeostasis of different processes, including sleep. In this session, we will discuss what processes become dysfunctional in ageing and how they impact measurable biological ageing biomarkers, how boosting these pathways with various interventional strategies could lead to more resilient ageing and how targeting sleep or circadian rhythm could contribute to healthspan extension.

Exploratory design session on:

• What is your vision for the future when you think about the fields of sleep, longevity, and augmentation over the next five, 10, and 25 years?
• What breakthrough questions need to be answered in order to get there?