Sleepy Dust Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question and you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of her senses while helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments with potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke, he helps us with our eyes and Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents and Belle, she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother he helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little neurons And they're coming to your place!

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue!

-# Fingers

-Fingers!

-# Eyes.

-Eyes!

-Ears.

-Ears!

-Nose.

-Nose!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Aah... Aah... Atchoo!

Oh! Ho-ho-ho! Oh, hello!

I'm just giving my lovely crystal collection a dust.

It's been a while since I've done it, so the dust is making me sneeze!

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask?

-Hi, Nina!

-Hi, guys!

-We've got a question for you.

-Why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

What a good question!

Why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

Some people call it "sleep in our eyes".

It's those little hard bits that we sometimes get in the corner.

Come down to the lab. We'll do some experiments to investigate.

BOTH: See you soon, Nina! Bye!

Bye!

I'm going to need some help to answer this. I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina!

OK, today's question is, why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

Which Neuron will be most useful helping us find the answer?

ALL: Me, me, me!

Will it be fabulous Felix?

I can help so very much, if you need the sense of touch.

Will it be beautiful Belle?

I send messages to brain from ear,

if there's a sound, I'll help you hear.

Will it be lovely Luke?

Looking and seeing, day or night,

I'll help you with your sense of sight.

Will it be awesome Ollie?

If it's pongy or whiffy, but you can't tell,

-my messages help your sense of smell.

-Or will it be baby Bud?

Sour, salty, bitter or sweet, I'm your taste buddy, whenever you eat.

BEEPING

It's Luke!

CHEERING

OTHER NEURONS: Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Cool, Nina! I'll be looking out to help ya!

Today's question is, why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

Because sleepy dust is something we get in our eyes,

Luke, our seeing Neuron, will be helping us today.

But Neurons, I may need help from all of you.

Right, I need to get the lab ready before the experimenters arrive.

Daniel likes pizza. His twin brother Luke loves swimming.

But both want to know about sleepy dust, so today,

for one day only, Daniel and Luke become The Experimenters!

Hi, guys!

BOTH: Hi, Nina!

Welcome to my science lab. It's lovely to see you both.

Your question is, why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

-Why do you want to know?

-I woke up this morning and had it in my eyes.

Where does it come from?

That's what we're going to try and find out,

because I get sleepy dust in my eyes, too,

and it seems to be when I wake up in the morning. Oh, let's check.

Let's see if anyone has got any at the moment. Have a feel.

No, there's nothing there, Nina. Your eyes are sleepy dust-free!

You're right, Felix.

I can't feel any sleepy dust. What about you guys?

BOTH: No, Nina!

So, we only get sleepy dust when we wake up after a big sleep.

We can tell it's there because we can feel it.

I think we need to investigate, to find out more.

Firstly, we're going to use our senses.

ALL: Whoop-whoo! A senses experiment! We're ready, Nina!

OK, so here we have some jam, some mashed potato and some sand.

Let's see if any of these feel like sleepy dust.

Let's get our fingers in!

Does it feel like sleepy dust?

-No.

-No?

It's gooey, isn't it?

-What does the mashed potato feel like?

-Slippery and squidgy.

-What does the sand feel like?

-Quite hard.

It's crunchy.

-Do you think this feels like sleepy dust?

-Yes.

-Yeah.

Yes, the little hard grains of sand feel a bit like sleepy dust.

But how does it get in our eyes?

I know another experiment. It might help us find out more.

-What do you normally do with your eyes?

-See.

-Blink.

-Yeah.

But there's something else you do with your eyes when you're sad.

NINA PRETENDS TO CRY

Cry!

Yes, you cry!

And when you cry, tears come from your eyes.

What do tears look like?

-Water?

-Yes.

Are these beakers filled with water?

BOTH: Yes!

Some are water and some are a clear chemical,

so we need to put our safety goggles on.

I'm also wearing protective gloves, as I'll be handling the chemicals.

Nina's specially trained to do this.

You should never try mixing things yourself at home.

OK.

Hoo-hoo!

Can you see that?

Something very strange is happening.

It's got all thick.

Thick and gloopy.

That's amazing.

Oh. OK, next up...

BOYS: Wow!

That's brilliant.

It's changing colour.

That's definitely not like any water I've seen, Nina.

That's because it's not water, Luke.

This has shown that

just because some things are clear and look like water,

doesn't mean they are. Just like tears.

They look like water,

but they have special salts in them, to help keep our eyes clean.

To find out even more about sleepy dust,

we need to find out lots more about tears.

Chop an onion! Then there'll be lots of tears.

We don't need to do that, Bud.

We just have to find somewhere really, really muddy!

Let's go! Goggles off!

Hmm... Where do you think we're going today?

-Nina said we were going somewhere muddy.

-And muddy means messy!

Hey, guys, looks like we're here!

-Here we are. Have you guessed why we're here yet?

-No, Nina!

Why don't we take a drive to find out? Woo-hoo!

Let's get in. Don't forget to buckle up.

It's a bit noisy!

And a bit, ooh, b-b-bouncy.

LUKE: And very messy, too. Look at that windscreen.

Oh, it's getting hard to see. There's so much mud.

-What could we use to clean it off?

-Water?

Great idea.

We just squirt some water and put the wipers on.

Well, the water an wipers are certainly doing the trick.

-That was brilliant, wasn't it?

-BOTH: Yes!

And our eyes are a bit like a windscreen.

There are lots of little things that float in the air,

that can get into our eyes. Like dust.

All day, our eyes make tears and when we blink,

we wipe the tears and wash the dirt away,

just like the windscreen wipers.

But what do tears

have to do with sleepy dust?

We don't know, Nina.

Let's go back to the lab to do a final experiment.

Maybe that will help us see more clearly! Follow me!

So, your question was, why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes?

So far, we've discovered that, although tears are clear,

just like water, they have special salts which clean our eyes.

We've also learned that our eyes make tears all day long,

which wipe when we blink and keep them clean.

Now we need to find out where sleepy dust comes from.

Let's get experimenting!

BOTH: Yeah!

For this experiment, we'll make something a bit like sleepy dust.

We're going to use another type of salt, called Epsom salts.

Let's take our Epsom salts and pour them into the warm water.

And using our stirrer, give it a good stir.

Very good.

Let's take our droppers

and put a little bit of this liquid onto our black paper, here.

OK, let's use our fingers and spread the liquid out.

Well done, guys. Now, something amazing will happen.

-Can you see what's happening?

-It's turning into something.

-It's white.

Yeah, it looks a bit white.

It looks a bit like snowflakes, Nina.

Oh, it does a bit, Luke. But these are actually called crystals.

Let's use our magnifying glass and have a closer look.

-Oh...

-Oh.

They look like little sparkles.

-They look like twinkly stars.

-Yeah.

These crystals here, these had longer to form and dry out.

I've scraped some of the crystals off. Now, what do they feel like?

Oh, goody, my turn!

Crunchy.

-Spiky.

-Yeah, it's quite crunchy and crispy,

just like sleepy dust.

So, your question was, why do we get sleepy dust in our eyes.

I think we've answered it. We discovered that our eyes

make tears all the time. As we blink, the tears wipe over our eyes

and this keeps our eyes clean during the day.

When we're sleeping, we don't blink.

So the tears gather in the corners, where they dry out and leave behind

the special cleaning salts that are in our tears.

That's why, sometimes, there's sleepy dust, or sleep, in our eyes

when we wake up. I hope that's answered your question.

Thanks, Nina, bye!

You're welcome. Bye.

If you want to know more about the science that's all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

Lab coat on, Nina?

Lab coat on, Ollie.

Safety gloves on, Nina?

Safety gloves on, Felix.

And don't forget your goggles, Nina.

Goggles are on, Luke. I think we're ready.

# We do experiments in the lab

# Shoo-be-dooby in the lab

# Bubbling experiments in the lab

-# In the lab!

-Go, Nina, in the lab

# Fizzing and popping Steam and smoke

# We need protection Don't we, folks?

# We always put our safety first

# We do experiments in the lab

-# In the lab!

-Go, Nina...! #

It's been a marvellous day. The sand really did feel like sleepy dust.

I really enjoyed myself today.

The smells coming from Nina's beakers were really whiffy.

I had a fabby day, especially when the windscreen got really muddy

and messy, and Nina had to clean it with the wipers.

Oh, it's been such a great day, man.

Those crystals looked amazing.

Our day's been bursting with sensational experiments.

-I hope you've enjoyed it. See you soon. Bye!

-Bye!

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