Dear Visitors

Welcome to the University of Rochester Medical Center’s (URMC) Sleep & Neurophysiology Research Laboratory.  Our research group has dedicated itself to the study of the causes, consequences, and treatments for insomnia.

The lab was founded in 1996 by Donna E. Giles, PhD. Dr. Giles focused broadly on risk factors for major depression (MDD), and specifically on physiological sleep abnormalities as risk factors for the familial transmission of MDD. Her work includes seminal papers on REM sleep disturbances in MDD and the mediators of sleep and mood disturbances in a three-generation cohort of families at risk for major depression. Dr. Giles actively mentors new investigators in the Department of Psychiatry.

Michael Perlis, who arrived in Rochester with Dr. Giles, became the lab’s director in 2001. Dr. Perlis’ work has included the characterization of insomnia as a prodromal symptom of depressive episodes, the assessment of high frequency EEG activity in patients with primary insomnia, and the nature of partial-reinforcement paradigms in the hypnotic management of insomnia. The lab continues to collaborate with Dr. Perlis, who is now at the University of Pennsylvania.

Wilfred Pigeon, who arrived in Rochester in 2004 to train with Dr. Perlis, became lab director in 2008. Dr. Pigeon served as the chair of the American of Academy of Sleep Medicine’s (AASM) Behavioral Sleep Medicine Committee from 2005-2008 and currently sits on the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Exam Task Force.  Current work in the lab includes a focus on the cognitive-behavioral treatment of insomnia across a number of co-morbid conditions such as depression, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress-disorder; the investigation of novel hypnotics; the exploration of sleep homeostasis dysregulation as a mechanism of insomnia; and the assessment of neuro-endocrine and neuro-immune alterations in primary and co-morbid insomnias. Dr. Sara Matteson-Rusby, a research faculty in our lab, also directs and sees patients in our Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic housed at the URMC Sleep Disorders Center.

The Fall of 2008 represented the beginning of a particularly exciting time for sleep research in Rochester. Our lab was re-capitalized by the Department of Psychiatry to upgrade equipment; we received funding from the newly formed Veterans Administration (VA) Center of Excellence in Canandaigua to conduct a study of insomnia and nightmares in veterans with combat trauma; the lab hosted a VA Expert Panel on Trauma and Sleep Disturbances; the URMC Sleep Disorders Center received accreditation for a Sleep Medicine fellowship for which our faculty serve as training faculty; and Kathy Parker, a long time sleep researcher, became the Dean of the URMC School of Nursing. Combined with our labs’ existing collaborations with the Psychoneuroimmunology Lab, the Rochester Center for Mind-Body Research, the Anesthesiology Department and several individual collaborating investigators, these events are further elevating the presence of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research at URMC.      

While the vision for Sleep Research at URMC broadens, we continue to refine our questions about the nature of insomnia, how it’s myriad representations can best be treated, and what broad and enduring health benefits can accrue from its proper management.  Ultimately, our goal is to reduce the public health burden of insomnia through both clinical and translational research that not only improves insomnia, but decreases the risk it poses for the development or worsening of other illnesses.

It is important to acknowledge that our ability to conduct insomnia research is not only dependent on the work efforts of our staff and faculty here at the Sleep & Neurophysiology Research Laboratory, our colleagues throughout the University, funding from the NIH and Pharmaceutical Industry, and infrastructure support from our Department and the University, but also our many study volunteers.

The work we do could not be done without the time and energy given to us by our volunteer participants. Our group, as well as all patients with insomnia, owes each and all of them a debt of gratitude.

Please explore our evolving webpage and contact us with any questions or comments.