Michael Grandner

Interests

Teaching

I have been fortunate to have had many excellent teachers and mentors. This has led to my current attitude, which sees teaching and mentoring as a very important part of my work.In the classroom: Courses and lectures to studentsWhile still a graduate student, I had the opportunity to assume the role of an instructor for 2 sections of Statistics for Psychology for two consecutive semesters at San Diego State University. I was responsible for the design of the course, preparing and delivering all lectures, holding office hours, writing and grading all exams and homework assignments, and all other activities. The classes were generally 30-45 students in size. This was an incredibly rewarding experience. I chose to teach statistics because not only do I love the subject, but I know that many Psychology students dread their undergraduate statistics course because it is often taught in a way that is not engaging. I see statistics as a set of useful tools that we can use to make sense of data. I looked forward to seeing if I could translate this to the classroom.My approach seemed to be successful. For all of the sections that I taught, my ratings were very high – what was usually the lowest-rated course in the department was suddenly one of the highest. This work was recognized in an award from the Department of Psychology. More importantly, though, I received a “Professor of the Year” award from a student group.Although I was not able to teach any courses during my postdoctoral fellowship, I look forward to continuing this experience in a faculty position. In addition to teaching Statistics, I would be interested in teaching a number of courses within Psychology. These range from the more general (e.g., Introduction to Psychology, Psychophysiology, Health Psychology, Research Methods, Abnormal Psychology, Clinical Psychology) to more focused (e.g., Sleep and Dreams, Biological Rhythms, Behavioral Assessment, Translational Research). In addition to full courses, I could contribute as a lecture to an existing course, as I have experience in this area (e.g., “Sleep Disorders” for Abnormal Psychology or “Overview of Insomnia” for medical students). In the lab: Mentored research experiencesOver the past several years, I have worked with a number of students in the lab. Having benefitted substantially from outstanding mentors, I strongly believe in the value of mentored research activities. I took the initiative to secure funding for hiring student workers and work-study students in my lab. As word spread regarding what I can offer, I have begun taking on unpaid students who simply want to work with me. Part of the reason why I have developed this reputation is that I offer a very wide range of experiences, which can be tailored to the student’s interests. For example, while all students participate in recruitment, screening, data entry, and other basic activities, they do other things as well. Students interested in medical school learn how to administer oral glucose tolerance tests, process and store plasma samples, and perform assays. Students interested in bioengineering and computer applications are taught statistical programming and they work with specialized equipment and software. Students interested in clinical careers (e.g., Clinical or Counseling Psychology) are encouraged to obtain informed consent, conduct structured clinical interviews, and conduct neuropsychological assessments. In short, the experiences students gain are applicable to their goals. This may be why past students have been very successful in securing admission to graduate schools and/or jobs following graduation.In addition, if students are able to meet their regular goals, I will mentor them through a research project of their own. I talk with them about research studies and how to think like a researcher. We talk about ideas that interest them, and I walk them through the process of developing an idea, turning that idea into a question, finding an existing dataset that can address that question, operationalizing it, forming a data analysis plan, interpreting data, and writing up and presenting the results. In addition, I offer them the opportunity to team up, where one student is primary author and another is secondary author, so they can work together. In the community: Workshops and outreachI believe that an important part of the job of an academician is to engage in outreach to the community. To that end, I have led a number of community-based workshops and focus groups, talking about sleep and behavioral sleep practices for several groups, including new parents, older adults, etc. I look forward to continuing this work.

Research

Insufficient sleep and sleep disorders are implicated in 4 of the 7 leading causes of death (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and accidents). Over 40 studies across several decades have documented that sleep duration is a significant predictor of mortality. Insufficient sleep and sleep disorders are also associated with weight gain, obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, depression, cognitive deficits, and many other adverse outcomes. Sleep is an important part of overall health.My research interests include the broad application of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, including studies of sleep as a domain of health behavior and the development and implementation of behavioral interventions for insufficient sleep and sleep disorders. Specific areas of focus include: (1) adverse cardiovascular, metabolic, and behavioral health outcomes associated with short sleep and/or insufficient sleep, (2) biopsychosocial determinants of short sleep, insufficient sleep, and poor sleep quality, and (3) behavioral interventions for sleep as a domain of health behavior. In summary, it is my belief that we need to better understand the downstream adverse outcomes of insufficient or poor quality sleep, the upstream determinants of sleep and sleep behaviors, and how knowledge of sleep determinants can inform behavioral interventions for adverse outcomes.1. Adverse cardiovascular, metabolic, and behavioral health outcomes associated with short sleep and/or insufficient sleepExisting epidemiological and laboratory studies have demonstrated associations between short and/or insufficient sleep and a number of adverse health outcomes. Despite provocative findings, several important questions remain, including: (1) How do existing studies (which often rely on unvalidated survey items or assess sleep deprivation in normal sleepers) generalize to the phenomenon of short sleep as it exists in the population? (2) If short sleepers do show impairments, how are these effects modified by individual differences in need for sleep, ability to sleep, and ability to adapt to decreased sleep? (3) How can we tell the difference between someone who is a “true short sleeper” and someone obtaining insufficient sleep? I have several ongoing or recently completed studies in this area. For example, I am currently overseeing a multi-phase study of habitual short sleepers (<6 hours) compared to normal sleepers (7-8 hours). The overall goal of the study is to evaluate (1) Subjective and objective sleep and sleep disorders in self-reported short sleepers, (2) Whether short sleepers are, as a group, impaired relative to normal sleepers, (3) Which cardiometabolic and/or cognitive variables differentiate short and normal sleepers, and (4) Potential subgroups within short sleepers, including “true short sleepers” and “impaired short sleepers.” This will allow for the characterization of the phenotype (and potential endophenotypes) of short sleepers for future genetic and epigenetic studies. This study includes online screening, at-home sleep apnea testing, saliva for DNA, clinical interview, 2-week monitoring with sleep diary and actigraphy, questionnaires assessing sleep, health and psychological factors, ambulatory and in-lab performance tests, neuropsychological testing, overnight in-lab polysomnography, oral glucose tolerance test, assays for metabolic hormones and inflammatory cytokines, and nutritional analysis. Other studies include, for example, secondary analyses of existing national datasets exploring the relative contributions of short sleep vs. insufficient sleep, interactions with insomnia and sleep apnea, etc.2. Biopsychosocial determinants of short sleep, insufficient sleep, and poor sleep qualitySleep is an important domain of health behavior that is largely overlooked in the Health Psychology literature. Unlike diet, smoking, exercise, and alcohol, little is known about the determinants of habitual sleep across the biopsychosocial spectrum. This is important, since successful behavioral interventions will need to account for the behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and environmental factors that determine sleep-related behaviors. Important questions include: (1) How are determinants of sleep associated with social determinants of health in general? (2) What are the habitual sleep-related practices, attitudes, and beliefs that predict healthy sleep? (3) Can health disparities be partially mitigated by addressing sleep disparities? I have several ongoing or recently completed studies in this area as well. For example, I am working (with collaborators) to develop and publish the first instrument for assessment of sleep-related practices, beliefs and attitudes. This is important because it will give us an understanding of determinants of sleep and help elucidate potential intervention pathways. Developing this measure involved generating pools of items grounded in the Health Belief Model, Theory of Reasoned Action and Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change, and refining this measure through an iterative process that included input from a panel of experts and members of the community, four focus groups (results in press), and implementation as part of a research study (in preparation). This resulted in a final draft of the questionnaire, which was assessed psychometrically. These results will be published with the initial publication of the questionnaire (manuscript submitted, invited to Social Science and Medicine). These initial data will allow us to evaluate behaviors and beliefs associated with sleep practices. In addition, publication of this questionnaire will allow future studies to expand these findings. In addition to this study, I worked with collaborators on a study of sleep quality in the Philadelphia area, documenting a “sleep disparity” related to poverty and race. Other ongoing or recently completed projects are documenting how sleep duration and sleep symptoms are associated with various sociodemographic factors (e.g., age, sex, race/ethnicity, marital status, immigrant status, geography), socioeconomic factors (e.g., income, education, food insecurity, access to healthcare), health behaviors (e.g., diet, exercise, smoking, alcohol use), and the role of social stressors (e.g., racism).Finally, I was first author on the publication that introduced a social-ecological model of sleep and health (the first social ecological model published for sleep), and I am currently working, along with several collaborators at other institutions, to formally introduce a refined version of this model as a framework for future research in the area of sleep at the interface of biopsychosocial factors and health outcomes.3. Behavioral interventions for sleep as a domain of health behaviorWell-described behavioral interventions exist for a number of sleep disorders. However, no interventions currently exist that address habitual unhealthy sleep habits, except for poorly-applied “sleep hygiene” instructions. Much work is needed in this domain to address these questions: (1) How can knowledge about determinants and outcomes of insufficient sleep translate into successful interventions that target habitual sleep practices? (2) Do behavioral interventions for insufficient sleep produce improvements in behavioral and cardiometabolic domains? (3) How can individual-level interventions be translated into community-level and population-level interventions?Although knowledge from the aforementioned areas will be important in informing future interventions, work has already begun to address how to develop and implement a strategy for increasing sleep time as a healthy behavior. I have completed a pilot study of 8 individuals in an open-label trial of an 8-week behavioral sleep extension protocol for habitual short sleepers. Pre-post assessments included sleep, psychological functioning, blood pressure, glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, inflammatory markers, metabolic hormones, neurobehavioral performance, objective sleep propensity, polysomnographic sleep, actigraphic sleep, and other measures. Analysis is ongoing, in preparation for a future grant application.

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  Sleep is important for regulating many physiologic functions that relate to metabolism. Because of this, there is substantial evidence to suggest that sleep habits and sleep disorders are related to diabetes risk. In specific, insufficient sleep duration and/or sleep restriction in the laboratory, poor sleep quality, and sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea have all been associated with diabetes risk. This research spans epidemiologic and laboratory studies. Both physiologic mechanisms such as insulin resistance, decreased leptin, and increased ghrelin and inflammation and behavioral mechanisms such as increased food intake, impaired decision-making, and increased likelihood of other behavioral risk factors such as smoking, sedentary behavior, and alcohol use predispose to both diabetes and obesity, which itself is an important diabetes risk factor. This review describes the evidence linking sleep and diabetes risk at the population and laboratory levels.

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