Sleep and Circadian Health Research Program
The Sleep and Circadian Health Research Program is directed by Freda Patterson, PhD.
Good sleep is essential for good health. Unfortunately, poor sleep health is common, with more than 25% of U.S. adults regularly reporting insufficient or poor-quality sleep. Moreover, advancing technology and economic/social demands have contributed to our ‘24-hour’ society, increasing the likelihood that individuals’ sleep patterns may be irregular, or that sleep and wake may be occurring at inappropriate times relative to our internal biological rhythms.
Our research program is interested in understanding how the amount, timing, regularity, and patterns of daily behaviors (namely sleep, physical activity, sedentariness, and eating) may play a role in chronic disease development, particularly in individuals at high risk for cardiovascular, metabolic, and pulmonary diseases. Our overarching goal is to develop viable and effective sleep- and circadian-based behavioral interventions to improve health and physical functioning in high-risk and underrepresented groups.
Recent News
- Dr. Patterson presented at the recent SLEEP conference in Indianapolis, IN with an oral presentation entitled “Variability in Sleep and Eating are Associated with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Early Adulthood”.
- Doctoral student, Thomas Keiser, presented a poster titled “Daily and Weekly Exercise Regularity May Enhance Beneficial Effects of Exercise in Active Young Adults” at the annual meeting of the International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in Uppsala, Sweden.
- Dr. Hoopes published a manuscript in SLEEP entitled “Temporal associations between nightly sleep with daytime eating and activity levels in free-living young adults”. Read it here.
- Doctoral student, Paige Laxton, published a manuscript in Autism entitled “Prevalence of current smoking and association with meeting 24-h movement guidelines: Results from a national convenience sample of autistic adults”. Read it here.
Contact Info:
Email: fredap@udel.edu
Phone: 302-831-6588
Location: The Tower at STAR, 7th floor
100 Discovery Blvd,
Newark, DE 19713