Sleep

Description/Mission Statement

The Sleep SIG aims to promote awareness of the role of sleep and circadian rhythms in health and well-being. The SIG welcomes anyone interested in contributing to this mission, including those who may not have a background or expertise in sleep and circadian rhythms. The SIG will serve as a forum for advancing behavioral sleep medicine through collaboration among SBM members, increasing sleep-related program presentations and workshops at SBM conferences, and supporting junior investigators who have interests in sleep research, clinical assessment and treatment of sleep disorders, and community and organizational policy.

Sleep can often be overlooked as a behavioral medicine issue. However, sleep parameters are both powerful predictors of health outcomes, as well as measurable consequences of behavior, health status and psychological problems. This bi-directional nature of sleep can be appreciated by considering the number of subtopics of interest at SBM that relate to sleep, such as pain, exercise, obesity, substance use, and chronic illness. Sleep quantity and quality can be improved by behavioral, psychological, educational and environmental interventions, as well as community and organizational policy. As such, the interdisciplinary nature of sleep research reflects that sleep is best understood from a biopsychosocial/environmental perspective and is ideally suited to be a focus of interest for SBM.

 

Opportunities to Engage with the Sleep SIG

1. Join the SIG roster or to be added or removed from the listserv:
   Log in to the Members Only section of the SBM website, click My Profile, and then edit the SIG section under the Professional tab. If you have questions or difficulty, email info@sbm.org.
    
2. Join a committee to get more involved with the SIG and network with your peers and mentors. We are currently looking for interested individuals for the SIG Communications Chair position:
    
   1. Communications Chair: We are looking for one or two individuals to join our communications committee. The chair will be in charge of putting together a quarterly newsletter for our SIG members and posting updates on the SIG’s social media accounts
      To express your interest in joining, please email the SIG leadership.
       
3. Participate in our Research Seminar Series:
   The SBM Sleep SIG Research Series is a virtual series in which SBM members have the opportunity to share their sleep-related research and any works in progress. Presentation format is left to the discretion of the presenter (slides are optional). Presentations should be approximately 15-30 minutes in length (slides are optional), followed by a 10-15 minute group discussion. Trainees and early career investigators are highly encouraged to participate! If you are interested in presenting your work in the future, please reach out to our student/trainee liaison, Monika: mk16401@georgiasouthern.edu

 

Awards

The Sleep SIG offers awards in the following categories:

• Sleep SIG Trainee Award
• Sleep SIG Early Career Award

 

SIG History

Previous Chairs:

2024-2025    Rina Fox, PhD
2023-2024    Diana Chirinos, PhD
2022-2023    Jessica Dietch, PhD
2020-2021    Eric Zhou, PhD
2019-2020    Tracy Trevorrow, PhD
2018-2019    Natasha Williams, Ed.D, MPH
2016-2017    Brian Gonzalez, PhD

 

Outlook Newsletter Articles

Here are some articles that our SIG has contributed to the Outlook newsletter in the past few years.

Winter 2024: The Postdoc Plight
Spring 2024: From Academia to Industry: Navigating the Role of Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) in a Digital Health Startup
Winter 2022: Addressing Sleep as a Road to Reduce Health Disparities – A Call for Action
Winter 2021: Quite a Change from Academia – Words of Wisdom from a Clinical Psychologist in Industry
Winter 2020: The ‘Best Decision’ Ever Made – Words of Wisdom From a Clinical Psychologist in Private Practice

 

Healthy Living Articles

Healthy living articles are public-facing articles that incorporate real-life examples to illustrate health behavior concepts. Our SIG has contributed the following Healthy Living articles in the past few years:

What is Sleep Hygiene? Best Practices & When to See a Specialist
Do Older People Need Less Sleep?
Blue in the Face: The Effects of Blue Light on Sleep

 

Position Statements

In 2022, our SIG leadership spearheaded a position statement on the “Need to Improve Accessibility to Evidence-based Treatment for Insomnia Disorder."