The Science of Sleep

Adolescence is a period of remarkable brain development—but it is also when many mental health challenges first emerge. My research explores how sleep helps shape the developing brain and why changes in sleep during adolescence may influence emotional health, particularly anxiety and depression. By studying brain activity during sleep, we are beginning to uncover how nighttime brain processes support learning, emotional regulation, and resilience—and why protecting sleep during the teenage years may be critical for mental health.

Children’s sleep is shaped by more than bedtime routines. Using data from thousands of youth in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, I examine how four neighborhood patterns relate to sleep length and quality: (1) economically disadvantaged, segregated areas; (2) dense, high-traffic urban cores; (3) high-achievement, highly educated communities; and (4) more rural, higher-pollution regions. Combining parent reports and data from wearable devices (Fitbit) that track sleep, I show which patterns matter most and what this means for families, schools, and policy.

We pay little attention to sleep, yet sleep is essential to our lives. However, we only realize its importance when we sleep too much or too little. I work on -and live with- narcolepsy, perhaps the most peculiar of sleep disorders: we can fall asleep suddenly during the day, without warning and in almost any situation. But why mini-brains? The cause of narcolepsy is known—the neurons responsible for keeping us awake during the day die. So, in the lab, I build mini-brains containing precisely those neurons that die in narcoleptic patients, to identify the culprit of this killing.