Grant & Award Recipients

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia versus positive airway pressure therapy for patients with co-morbid insomnia and sleep apnea: feasibility of a parallel group experimental design

Treatment of comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea (COMISA) is challenged by the co-occurrence of two heterogeneous conditions. The endotype arousal threshold (ArTH) may inform therapy but is in need of prospective testing. This study will pave the way for an endotype-stratified randomized trial by recruiting patients with COMISA and low or normal ArTH to undergo either cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia or positive airway pressure therapy.

Sleep theta burst stimulation for improved prefrontal neuromodulation in depression

Depression affects 280 million people worldwide, yet current treatments including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy help only half of patients. Using TMS, intra- and extracranial recordings in depressed patients, and real-time thalamocortical sleep-spindle-triggered closed-loop stimulation, I will test whether sleep-state TMS enhances prefrontal plasticity beyond wake-state protocols, advancing next-generation psychiatric therapies.

Untangling the effects of homeostatic sleep pressure and circadian timing on cognitive performance and food choice among adolescents with and without overweight/obesity

Rates of U.S. pediatric obesity and restricted sleep are rising. Cognitive impairments following sleep restriction may relate to poorer behavioral health outcomes, particularly among adolescents with overweight/obesity. This project uses data from an in-laboratory forced desynchrony protocol to examine the influence of adolescent sleep and circadian rhythms on cognitive function, eating behavior, and body mass index (BMI).

Infant Behavioral Sleep Intervention in Black Families

Infant behavioral sleep intervention (BSI) is efficacious but may be less acceptable to Black families, supporting a need for tailoring or adaptation. This project will convene a stakeholder board to: 1) identify priorities & key outcomes for sleep research in Black families with young children; 2) conduct a survey of cultural differences and BSI acceptability within the US Black diaspora; and 3) inform future grant submissions on infant sleep.

Investigating the Mechanisms of Restless Legs Syndrome: An Omics-Driven Approach for Identifying Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) affects ~10% of people, worsens sleep/quality of life, and increases cardiometabolic and mental health risk, yet diagnosis relies on self-reported symptoms. Using large cohorts, this project will identify blood proteins linked to RLS, replicate across platforms, test diagnostic accuracy with machine learning, and relate biomarkers to genetic risk and pathways. Expected outcome: objective biomarkers to improve diagnosis and guide therapies.

This grant is co-funded by the AASM Foundation and Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation.

Pulse oximeter and skin color

Pulse oximetry is important for sleep-disordered breathing assessment. SpO₂ vary according to skin color, sensor location, and processing. This study will compare both steady-state and transient desaturation during breath-holding using conventional and narrow-band pulse oximeters in the same individuals. We hypothesize that narrow-band pulse oximeters reduce melanin-related measurement differences across diverse skin tones including vitiligo.

This grant was made possible by Resmed.

Varying Hypopnea Definitions and Missed Treatment Opportunities in Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Dr. Hnin Oo was born in Myanmar and moved to Jamaica at age 10. She entered medical school as the top matriculant at the University of the West Indies and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Hackensack University/Englewood Hospital program. She worked as a Hospitalist/Nocturnist before pursuing fellowship training. Her research spans pulmonary rehabilitation/ chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with more recent work in obstructive sleep apnea focusing on quality improvement and health equity. She is currently a Pulmonary and Critical Care fellow at UConn Health and will begin a Sleep Medicine fellowship at Yale School of Medicine in July 2026.

Actigraphy-measured sleep is improved after dietary supplementation in older adults with mild traumatic brain injury: A randomized clinical trial

Hannah Cunningham is a PhD Candidate in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University. Her research is dedicated to understanding how sleep physiology is altered in individuals at risk for neurodegenerative diseases. She investigates the effects of various sleep-based interventions in people who have experienced traumatic brain injury, aiming to identify strategies that could mitigate sleep disturbances and cognitive decline.

The Age Paradox: PAP Therapy and Depression in OSA

Dr. Iryna Witt is a 3rd year Internal Medicine resident at University of South Florida /HCA Sarasota Doctors Hospital. She is driven by curiosity about sleep’s impact on health and a passion for sharing that knowledge with others. She will continue this path as she starts her Sleep Medicine fellowship at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where she is eager to learn, grow, and one day play a small part in moving sleep medicine forward.

Cannabis and Alcohol Use Predicts Insomnia Symptoms and Sleep Locus of Control in College Students

Sydney Johnson is a 4th-year, first-generation undergraduate student at the University of St. Thomas psychology department. Under the mentorship of J. Roxanne Prichard, PhD, and Mari Gades, PhD, her work aims to investigate how motives for substance use influence sleep health among college students. Sydney plans to pursue graduate school for clinical psychology.

Dr. Indu Ayappa is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the David M. Rapoport, MD Sleep and Respiratory Research Program in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr Ayappa’s research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), developing diagnostic tools and treatments for OSA and elucidating mechanisms that underlie differential outcomes in OSA. She credits her success in mentoring to (i) exceptional life-long exemplary mentorship in her own career, (ii) protected time and resources for trainee career development provided by National Institutes of Health (NIH) and foundation support, and (iii) a dedicated group of outstanding mentees with a commitment to sleep research. 

Dr. Christina McCrae is a Professor and Assistant Dean of Research at the University of South Florida College of Nursing where she directs the McCrae Sleep Research Lab and the newly founded Sleep and Health Innovation in Neurobehavioral (SHINE) Science Center. Her research examines sleep and the biopsychosocial and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying chronic insomnia and comorbid medical conditions across the lifespan, as well as the impact of cognitive behavioral treatments on these mechanisms. Dr. McCrae has mentored hundreds of trainees across disciplines including psychology, nursing, medicine, nutrition, and social work and spanning undergraduate students through junior faculty. Her mentees have earned numerous national and international research awards and fellowships, secured competitive research funding, and obtained faculty positions at research-intensive institutions across the United States and internationally. 

Dr. Wilfred Pigeon is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center where he directs the Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Lab. His research focuses largely on developing, adapting and sequencing behavioral interventions for insomnia that co-occurs with other conditions. With his team at the Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention, which he directed for some years, he produced several seminal publications and programs related to sleep and suicide. He trains and develops training programs for cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia both locally and nationally. Dr. Pigeon has happily mentored trainees from undergraduates to post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty, many of whom now direct their own labs and training programs. He remains grateful for the mentoring he received from Michael Sateia, MD and Tom Mellman, MD at the Dartmouth Sleep Disorders Center and subsequently from Michael Perlis, PhD and Jan Moynihan, PhD at Rochester.

In partnership with CommunityHealth Chicago, the largest volunteer-run free clinic in the United States, CHI-PAP launched in 2021 and offers evaluation, treatment, and long-term follow up for sleep-related health issues to low-resource patients in the Chicago metropolitan area.