Mary A. Carskadon, Ph.D.

Mary A. Carskadon, Ph.D., is currently Director of Chronobiology/Sleep Research at the E.P. Bradley Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Carskadon’s early research at Stanford culminated in the development and application of a standardized measure for daytime sleep tendency, the multiple sleep latency test. Her scientific activities include research examining the interrelation between the circadian timing system and sleep/wake patterns of children and adolescents. The findings have raised public health issues regarding the consequences of insufficient sleep in adolescents as well as concerns about early starting times of schools.

New research initiatives include assessing sleep as an environmental exposure that can impact mood and behavioral outcomes in association with genetic variants. Carskadon has written more than 150 scientific papers, and her work has been acknowledged by a number of honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Sleep Foundation, the Outstanding Educator Award and Distinguished Scientist Award of the Sleep Research Society, and the Nathaniel Kleitman Distinguished Service Award and Mark O. Hatfield Public Policy Award of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

She is also an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.