Insomnia symptoms affect about 30 percent of the population, while an additional 10 percent suffer from a chronic insomnia disorder. However, how insomnia symptoms develop into a persisting disorder since childhood has remained an elusive question. Dr. Fernandez-Mendoza has described the developmental trajectories of insomnia symptoms from childhood to adolescence through young adulthood, examined their risk factors, racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities, and health consequences in youths from the general population. His research informs public health prevention strategies and translates into clinical care assessment, diagnosis, and interventions.
Dr. Julio Fernandez-Mendoza is the Edward O. Bixler Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health and Professor of Public Health Sciences and Neural & Behavioral Sciences at Penn State. He is associate vice chair for faculty development in research scholarship and director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine (BSM) program. He is a scientist-clinician trained in psychobiology and clinical psychology and board-certified in BSM. His research aims to understand the developmental aspects of disturbed, insufficient, and misaligned sleep and their association with cardiometabolic, neurocognitive, and psychopathologic morbidity and mortality. He also examines the effect of cognitive-behavioral versus pharmacological sleep therapies. He practices at Penn State Health Sleep Research and Treatment Center, where he trains the next generation of BSM providers.
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