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| Hans P. A. Van DONGEN, Ph.D. - SLEEP AND CHRONOBIOLOGY | |||
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| Research Associate
Professor of Sleep and Chronobiology in Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry 1019 Blockley Hall 423 Guardian Drive Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021 phone: (215) 573-5866 fax: (215) 573-6410 vdongen@mail.med.upenn.edu |
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EDUCATION: 1998-1999: University of Pennsylvania - Postdoctoral Researcher | |||
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RESEARCH
INTERESTS:Six regulatory mechanisms appear to determine human sleep and wakefulness: homeostatic sleep-wake
regulation (i.e., the homeostatic build-up of a drive for sleep during
wakefulness and the dissipation of that drive during sleep), circadian
rhythmicity (i.e., 24-hour or near-24-hour variation of a drive for
wakefulness), sleep inertia (i.e., tendency to return to sleep and reduced
performance capability immediately after waking up), trait vulnerability to
neurobehavioral impairment (e.g., from sleep loss or circadian disruption),
endogenous stimulation (e.g., motivation, fear), and exogenous stimulation
and context (e.g., noise, ambient temperature, workload). My research interests
focus on disentangling how homeostatic regulation, circadian rhythmicity,
sleep inertia, trait vulnerability and some of the endogenous and exogenous
stimulation factors contribute to healthy subjects' temporal profile of sleep,
wakefulness and neurobehavioral performance. By conducting experiments in the
controlled environment of an isolated laboratory, and by using intensive
neurobehavioral testing and monitoring, exogenous and endogenous stimuli are eliminated,
held constant, or manipulated. Furthermore, by restricting, displacing or
disallowing sleep across multiple days in the laboratory, as well as through
the application of pharmaceutical and other countermeasures, many combinations
of homeostatic, circadian and sleep-inertia states are investigated
systematically for their separate and combined contributions to sleep-wake
regulation. Thus, a thorough mapping and understanding of these regulatory
mechanisms is being pursued, taking inter-individual differences into
account.
Representative recent publications:
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