UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Most people have experienced a night or two of tossing and turning while being unable to fall asleep or stay asleep. Insomnia symptoms affect about 30% of the population, while an additional 10% suffer from a chronic insomnia disorder.
Poor sleep can begin in childhood. Yet, when it comes to sleep and children, insomnia symptoms aren’t always taken seriously — and how childhood insomnia symptoms develop into a persisting disorder has remained an elusive question. Julio Fernandez-Mendoza, professor at the Penn State College of Medicine, will detail his research into sleep disorders in the next Virtual Speaker Series from the Penn State Alumni Association from noon to 1 p.m. ET on Oct. 18. This free event will be held on Zoom and registration is open now.
Fernandez-Mendoza was a senior author of a study, published in the journal SLEEP, that described the developmental trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to adolescence through young adulthood, examined their risk factors, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities, and health consequences in youths from the general population.
Fernandez-Mendoza and his colleagues found that children and teens from racial and ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by persistent insomnia symptoms that begin in childhood and continue through young adulthood. Specifically, Black children were 2.6 times more likely to experience these long-term sleep problems compared to white children. The findings underscore the need to identify insomnia symptoms early and intervene with age-appropriate treatment.
Fernandez-Mendoza is the Edward O. Bixler Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and professor of public health sciences and neural and behavioral sciences. He is associate vice chair for faculty development in research scholarship and director of the behavioral sleep medicine (BSM) program. He is a scientist-clinician trained in psychobiology and clinical psychology and board-certified in BSM. His research aims to understand the developmental aspects of disturbed, insufficient and misaligned sleep and their association with cardiometabolic, neurocognitive and psychopathologic morbidity and mortality. He also examines the effect of cognitive-behavioral vs. pharmacological sleep therapies.
He practices at Penn State Health Sleep Research and Treatment Center, where he trains the next generation of BSM providers.
The Virtual Speaker Series is one of several programs offered online by the Penn State Alumni Association. For more events and programs that will inform, educate and inspire, visit the association’s PSAA Presents listing.