I use lots of different equipment depending on what I am studying.
Sometimes I look at how sleep impacts emotion and cognition (how we think) so I use a computer with lots of different tests on it. The keyboard is designed specifically for the tests so has buttons like yes/no, numbers, and then emotions like fear or happy (a test shows participants faces and they have to guess the mood, this is because perception of others mood is affected by sleep).
I use something called eye trackers with are glasses with cameras and I can see where someone is looking or how sleepy they are during a test (eye-lids shut slowly).
I get participants to wear activity trackers for up to 6 months to measure their activity and sleep.
I measure brain activity using something called Electroencephalography (EEG). We glue small sensors to the persons scalp and on their face. This is then used to measure sleep. There is a picture of this in my bio if you want to have a look, under my work!
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