Ruhi Snyder

Ruhi Snyder is the founder of Naptor. She is an Independent Sleep Researcher and Educator. Ruhi has been in the field of sleep medicine for the past twenty years- as a board registered polysomnographic technologist (RPSGT), who is also certified in advanced clinical sleep health. She has also served as an administrator, teacher and educator. She is currently at Kingston General Hospital’s Sleep Disorders Lab, Kingston Health Sciences Centre, where she works in assessing and evaluating sleep disorders, implementing therapeutic interventions, and educating patients.

In 2011, after years of helping others improve the quality of their sleep, Ruhi began looking critically at the negative impact of the shift work entailed in her job. Concerned about the effect it was having on her health and well being, she embarked on a longitudinal self-case study, collecting subjective and objective data over the course of more than nine years to better understand the impact of an erratic sleep schedule. As part of her research, Ruhi created an experimental program/s exploring how self-regulation, notably physical exercise in the form of high intensity interval training, diet, intermittent fasting and meditating might counteract the negative effects of shift work. She embraces the notion of shift work as an act of “slow violence”, a term borrowed from Dr. Rob Nixon, Professor of Humanities and the Environment at Princeton University. Slow Violence describes the catastrophic effects of environmental deterioration and its invisible trauma on human beings. “As shift workers,” she has said, “We commit slow violence against ourselves.”

Ruhi approaches the subject of sleep as a practitioner and parent. Viewing the subject through both a political and economic lens, she is fascinated by the way sleep impacts nearly every aspect of our lives – from our mental health, to the ways we learn, retain information, regulate hormones, and age among many other mental and physical functions. Ruhi regards quality sleep as preventive medicine and critical for health.

A passionate educator, Ruhi has presented her research at the World Sleep Congress in Vancouver, Kingston Nursing Research Conference at Queen’s University, International Symposium on Shift Work and Working Time in Uluru, Australia, and the Canadian Sleep Society Conference in Toronto, among other venues.

A sought-after speaker, Ruhi Snyder has been delivering interactive sleep workshops since 2014 in various Elementary, Middle and High Schools across Ontario as a part of her outreach on preventive medicine. In 2018, she founded Naptor, a not-for-profit organization committed to delivering evidence-based educational workshops on sleep health for children, youth and adults. 

Ruhi’s research is in preventive medicine, including shift work and working time, sleep in pre-adolescents and adolescents. Her current focus is educating pre-adolescents and adolescents about the importance of sleep, health and well being. Her other projects include an ongoing case study on “The Role of Self-Regulation to Counter the Slow Violence of Shift Work”. She is also involved in “Sleep Nap Study” at  Davies 4 ICU unit at Kingston General Hospital, Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

ruhisleep.ca is home to the Sleep and Society Podcast, a bi-weekly podcast where Ruhi talks about different topics around sleep and society. Visit the Sleep and Society Podcast for more.