Girardin Jean-Louis is an American academic who is a Professor in the Department of Population Health and Psychiatry at New York University. He serves as Director of the Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program and the "Program to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged" in Health-Related Research (PRIDE) Institute. In 2020, he was named as one of The Community of Scholars' most inspiring Black scientists in America.
Jean-Louis grew up in Haiti. [1] He became interested in engineering as a child, and particularly enjoyed building different contraptions. [1] At the age of seventeen he immigrated to New York City, where he joined the City College of New York as an undergraduate student in engineering. [1] As a student he took an elective course in sleep lab techniques, and became interested in sleep and wakefulness. [1] He earned his doctoral degree at the City University of New York. His doctoral research considered the impact of melatonin on sleep and cognition in elderly individuals. [2] He was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of California, San Diego, where he specialized in sleep and chronobiology. [1] As part of his research, Jean-Louis advanced the science around wearable technologies (actigraphy) to monitor patient's sleep-wake behavior out of hospital and expensive laboratories. [1] [3] In the early days of his research on sleep science, Jean-Louis struggled to find academic mentors, particularly mentors of color. He continued to improve the science of actigraphy such that it could be more readily used to collect sleep data in the comfort and safety of patient's own home. [3]
Jean-Louis studies the sociocultural and environmental determinants of health. [4] His research considers sleep medicine and health equity, an in particular, how low-income and minority communities are impacted by insufficient sleep. [5] He is particularly interested in why sleep apnea is under-diagnosed in African-Americans. In 2008, he showed that less than 40% of African-American patients with sleep apnea agreed to having a diagnostic test. [5] In an effort to understand the sleep behavior of minority groups, Jean-Louis has led several outreach initiatives. These include programs in churches, barber shops and health salons. [1]
Jean-Louis was awarded an National Institute on Aging (NIA) Leadership Career Award in 2018. [6] In 2020, he was selected as one of The Community of Scholars' most inspiring Black scientists in America. [7] Alongside his academic research, Jean-Louis has launched several initiatives to support underrepresented minority groups in science and medicine. As the satisfaction and medical outcomes of communities of color are impacted by the racial/ethnic heritage of the physician, Jean-Louis believes there is an urgent need for more diverse medical practitioners. [8]
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Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but more reactive than a coma or disorders of consciousness, with sleep displaying different, active brain patterns.
A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of an individual's sleep patterns. Some sleep disorders are severe enough to interfere with normal physical, mental, social and emotional functioning. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for diagnosing sleep disorders.
Hypersomnia is a neurological disorder of excessive time spent sleeping or excessive sleepiness. It can have many possible causes and can cause distress and problems with functioning. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), hypersomnolence, of which there are several subtypes, appears under sleep-wake disorders.
Somnology is the scientific study of sleep. It includes clinical study and treatment of sleep disorders and irregularities. Sleep medicine is a subset of somnology.
Actigraphy is a non-invasive method of monitoring human rest/activity cycles. A small actigraph unit, also called an actimetry sensor, is worn for a week or more to measure gross motor activity. The unit is usually in a wristwatch-like package worn on the wrist. The movements the actigraph unit undergoes are continually recorded and some units also measure light exposure. The data can be later read to a computer and analysed offline; in some brands of sensors the data are transmitted and analysed in real time.
Parasomnias are a category of sleep disorders that involve abnormal movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, and dreams that occur while falling asleep, sleeping, between sleep stages, or during arousal from sleep. Parasomnias are dissociated sleep states which are partial arousals during the transitions between wakefulness, NREM sleep, and REM sleep, and their combinations.
Circadian rhythm sleep disorders (CRSD), also known as circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders (CRSWD), are a family of sleep disorders which affect the timing of sleep. CRSDs arise from a persistent pattern of sleep/wake disturbances that can be caused either by dysfunction in one's biological clock system, or by misalignment between one's endogenous oscillator and externally imposed cues. As a result of this mismatch, those affected by circadian rhythm sleep disorders have a tendency to fall asleep at unconventional time points in the day. These occurrences often lead to recurring instances of disturbed rest, where individuals affected by the disorder are unable to go to sleep and awaken at "normal" times for work, school, and other social obligations. Delayed sleep phase disorder, advanced sleep phase disorder, non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder and irregular sleep–wake rhythm disorder represents the four main types of CRSD.
Shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder characterized by insomnia, excessive sleepiness, or both affecting people whose work hours overlap with the typical sleep period. Insomnia can be the difficulty to fall asleep or to wake up before the individual has slept enough. About 20% of the working population participates in shift work. SWSD commonly goes undiagnosed, so it's estimated that 10–40% of shift workers have SWSD. The excessive sleepiness appears when the individual has to be productive, awake and alert. Both symptoms are predominant in SWSD. There are numerous shift work schedules, and they may be permanent, intermittent, or rotating; consequently, the manifestations of SWSD are quite variable. Most people with different schedules than the ordinary one might have these symptoms but the difference is that SWSD is continual, long-term, and starts to interfere with the individual's life.
Melatonin receptors are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) which bind melatonin. Three types of melatonin receptors have been cloned. The MT1 (or Mel1A or MTNR1A) and MT2 (or Mel1B or MTNR1B) receptor subtypes are present in humans and other mammals, while an additional melatonin receptor subtype MT3 (or Mel1C or MTNR1C) has been identified in amphibia and birds. The receptors are crucial in the signal cascade of melatonin. In the field of chronobiology, melatonin has been found to be a key player in the synchrony of biological clocks. Melatonin secretion by the pineal gland has circadian rhythmicity regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) found in the brain. The SCN functions as the timing regulator for melatonin; melatonin then follows a feedback loop to decrease SCN neuronal firing. The receptors MT1 and MT2 control this process. Melatonin receptors are found throughout the body in places such as the brain, the retina of the eye, the cardiovascular system, the liver and gallbladder, the colon, the skin, the kidneys, and many others. In 2019, X-ray crystal and cryo-EM structures of MT1 and MT2 were reported.
Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge and answered many questions about sleep-wake functioning. The rapidly evolving field has become a recognized medical subspecialty in some countries. Dental sleep medicine also qualifies for board certification in some countries. Properly organized, minimum 12-month, postgraduate training programs are still being defined in the United States. In some countries, the sleep researchers and the physicians who treat patients may be the same people.
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary widely in severity.
Irregular sleep–wake rhythm (ISWD) is a rare form of circadian rhythm sleep disorder. It is characterized by numerous naps throughout the 24-hour period, no main nighttime sleep episode, and irregularity from day to day. Affected individuals have no pattern of when they are awake or asleep, may have poor quality sleep, and often may be very sleepy while they are awake. The total time asleep per 24 hours is normal for the person's age. The disorder is serious—an invisible disability. It can create social, familial, and work problems, making it hard for a person to maintain relationships and responsibilities, and may make a person home-bound and isolated.
Charles A. Czeisler is an American physician and sleep researcher. He is a researcher and author in the fields of both circadian rhythms and sleep medicine.
Eliseo J. Pérez-Stable is a Cuban-American physician-scientist. He is the director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.
Behavioral sleep medicine (BSM) is a field within sleep medicine that encompasses scientific inquiry and clinical treatment of sleep-related disorders, with a focus on the psychological, physiological, behavioral, cognitive, social, and cultural factors that affect sleep, as well as the impact of sleep on those factors. The clinical practice of BSM is an evidence-based behavioral health discipline that uses primarily non-pharmacological treatments. BSM interventions are typically problem-focused and oriented towards specific sleep complaints, but can be integrated with other medical or mental health treatments. The primary techniques used in BSM interventions involve education and systematic changes to the behaviors, thoughts, and environmental factors that initiate and maintain sleep-related difficulties.
Staci Bilbo is an American neuroimmunologist and The Haley Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. Bilbo also holds a position as a research affiliate at Massachusetts General Hospital overseeing research within the Lurie Center for Autism. As the principal investigator of the Bilbo Lab, Bilbo investigates how environmental challenges during the perinatal period impact the immune system and further influence brain development, cognition, and affective behaviors later in life.
Monica S. Webb Hooper is an American behavioral scientist and clinical psychologist serving as deputy director of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She was a professor at Case Western Reserve University and associate director for cancer disparities research and director of the Office of Cancer Disparities Research in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dustin Troy Duncan is an American public health researcher who is a Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Spatial Epidemiology Lab at Columbia University. Their research considers how environmental factors influence population health and health disparities. In particular, Duncan has focused on the health of sexual minority men and transgender women of color in New York City and the Deep South.
Rosalind Dymond Cartwright (1922–2021), a neuroscientist, was a Professor Emerita in the Department of Psychology and in the Neuroscience Division of the Graduate College, Rush University. She was known to her peers as "Queen of Dreams". In 2004 she was named Distinguished Scientist of the Year by the Sleep Research Society.
Melatonin is a dietary supplement and medication as well as naturally occurring hormone. As a hormone, melatonin is released by the pineal gland and is involved in sleep–wake cycles. As a supplement, it is often used for the short-term treatment of insomnia, such as from jet lag or shift work, and is typically taken orally. Evidence of its benefit for this use, however, is not strong. A 2017 review found that sleep onset occurred six minutes faster with use, but found no change in total time asleep. A prolonged-release form of melatonin is also approved for use as a medication in Europe for the treatment of insomnia in certain people.
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