Do females sleep better? Insights from basic and clinical studies
Monica Levy Andersen, PhD (Brazil)
Associate Professor, Director of Sleep Institute, Vice-chair of Department of Psychobiology
Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil
Keynote Summary: Women’s relationship with sleep can be complex, and is very different from that of men. During a woman’s life, the risk of developing sleep disorders, such as insomnia and sleep fragmentation, and experiencing disruption of their circadian rhythms, markedly increases for a number of reasons, including hormonal changes, societal pressures, and family responsibilities. The aim of this presentation is to review some differential aspects of sleep in females, to look at the basic science and current clinical practice, and to understand how sleep can change across the life of females, and how sleep deprivation impacts different aspects of female physiology.
Biosketch: Monica Levy Andersen is Associate Professor at the Department of Psychobiology at Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). She also serves as Director and Researcher at the Sleep Institute in Brazil and as a Visiting Associate Professor at Yerkes National Primate Research Center. She hold several positions of leadership at UNIFESP, including Vice Chief of the Department of Psychobiology and Dean of Graduate Studies, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Sleep Science. Dr. Andersen has published six books, over 40 book chapters and over 500 papers.