Science of Sleep

Northwestern’s Zee To Give NIH Director’s Lecture, Apr. 3

Does the recent jump to daylight savings time have you feeling out of sorts? Learn how sleep and circadian rhythms are key regulators of biological processes.

Dr. Phyllis C. Zee of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine will deliver the next NIH Director’s Lecture, part of the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS), on Apr. 3 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET. The title of the lecture is “Dynamic Interplay of Circadian Rhythms and Sleep on Health.” The presentation will be held in Lipsett Amphitheater, Bldg. 10, and videocast at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=52619. 

Zee is professor of neurobiology, the Benjamin and Virginia T. Boshes professor in neurology, and chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Northwestern Medicine. She also serves as director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine, where she oversees an interdisciplinary program in basic and translational sleep and circadian rhythm research. Findings from her team have paved the way for innovative approaches to improve sleep and circadian health. 

A central theme of Zee’s research is understanding the role of circadian-sleep interactions on the expression and development of cardiometabolic and neurologic disorders. Zee has focused on the effects of age and neurodegeneration on sleep and circadian rhythms and pathophysiology of circadian sleep-wake disorders.

During her WALS talk, she will discuss the implications of circadian-sleep disruption for human health, focusing on cardio-metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders, and the promise of circadian-sleep-based interventions such as timed light exposure and time-restricted feeding to improve health outcomes by enhancing the crosstalk between central and peripheral clock-sleep mechanisms.

More information about WALS is posted at https://oir.nih.gov/wals.—Diana Gomez