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Nature and Science of Sleep

ISSN: 1179-1608


Professor Ahmed BaHammam

Professor BaHammam

University Sleep Medicine Research Center and Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ahmed S. BaHammam is the Director of the University Sleep Medicine Research Center and Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program, King Saud University, and Professor of Sleep Medicine at the College of Medicine, King Saud University.

Prof. BaHammam did his specialization in Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Sleep Medicine at the University of Manitoba, Canada, in the mid-1990s with Meir Kryger. He also obtained the Royal College of Physicians of London and the American College of Physicians' Fellowships. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of King Saud University in 2016.

Prof. BaHammam has experience with medical journal editorship for over 17 years, as Editor-In-Chief, Associate Editor, or a member of the Editorial Board of several general and specialty medical journals, and a reviewer of the top specialty journals. He was nominated to the Sleep & Respiratory Neurobiology Planning Committee (SRN) membership of the American Thoracic Society in 2018 and is a founding member of the Asian Society of Sleep Medicine (ASSM).

Professor BaHammam's research focuses on several sleep-related topics, including obesity hypoventilation syndrome, central hypersomnolence disorders, and the impact of intermittent fasting and mealtime on sleep and circadian rhythm. He has received several grants for his research. He authored more than 300 peer-review articles and book chapters, and two books in the field of sleep medicine and sleep research.


Dr Valentina Alfonsi

Dr Alfonsi

Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

Dr. Valentina Alfonsi, PhD, is a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapist and a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Laboratory of Sleep Psychophysiology at the University of Rome "Sapienza", Italy. She obtained her PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science in 2020, during which she conducted several studies investigating the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for modulating sleepiness and vigilance levels.

Dr. Alfonsi's research spans across both basic science and clinical research areas, including sleep psychophysiology, sleep disorders and sleep-related performance. Her particular interest lies in understanding the consequences of altered sleep/wake patterns on health, performance, sleepiness, and vigilance. Specifically, her research has focused on examining the impact of night-shift work on sleep quality, sleepiness, and psychomotor vigilance among healthcare workers. Additionally, she has conducted studies examining the effects of delayed school start times on sleep patterns, sleepiness, and academic performance among adolescents.

Dr. Alfonsi's contributions to the field of sleep research are reflected in her body of work, which includes over 40 original publications and book chapters in international peer-reviewed journals. Her dedication to advancing our understanding of sleep-related phenomena and their implications for health and performance is evident in the broad spectrum of research she has conducted.


Dr Sarah L Appleton

Dr Appleton

Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (Sleep Health), College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Dr. Sarah Appleton, BSc (Hons), PhD, is a chronic disease epidemiologist and Senior Research fellow at AISH at Flinders University, South Australia. Prior to this she was working in The Health Observatory, Adelaide Medical School, The University of Adelaide. She completed her PhD there in 2010 after working across a broad range of laboratory-based basic science and clinical research areas. She is a Chief Investigator for the North West Adelaide Health Study (NWAHS), a biomedical cohort study established in 2000-01. Since 2012, she has made contributions to identifying the burden of undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea in men and its relationship with chronic disease outcomes life in the Men Androgens Inflammation Lifestyle Environment and Stress (MAILES) study. She coordinated the follow-up of the MAILES study cohort in 2018-19 including a repeat full-in home sleep studies and assessments of cardiometabolic factors and cognition. Her work has led to over 100 original publications in chronic disease and sleep epidemiology.

Sarah's research has aimed to identify clinical phenotypes of people at risk of poor health outcomes in order to inform evidenced based policy for the improved delivery of health services and prevention of chronic disease. She has a particular interest in the role of gender in the diagnosis and management of sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea.


Editorial Board

Chen Ning-Hung, Professor Attending Physician Director of Taoyuan Chang Gung Sleep Center / Associate Professor of Chang Gung University, Taiwan.

Seockhoon Chung, Department of Psychiatry, ASAN Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Korea.

Dr David Cunnington, Sleep Physician & Director, Melbourne Sleep Disorders Centre, Melbourne, Australia.

Luigi De Gennaro, PhD, Professor of Psychobiology, Department of Psychology, University of Rome Sapienza, Rome, Italy.

Derk-Jan Dijk, Professor of Sleep and Physiology, Director, Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

Christopher L. Drake, PhD, Director of Sleep Research, Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Michigan, United States.

Sy Duong-Quy, President of Vietnam Society of Sleep Medicine, Bio-Medical Research Center, Lam Dong Medical College, Dalat, Viet Nam; Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, USA.

Christian Franceschini, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Parma, Italy. 

Fang Han, Professor Peking University People's Hospital Beijing, China.

David Harper, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Associate Director for Research, Division of Geriatric Psychiatry, McLean Hospital, Belmont, MA, USA

Horace Craig Heller, Professor, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Zhi-Li Huang, Department of Pharmacology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology and MOE Frontiers Center for Brain Science, Institutes of Brain Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. 

Dr Dimitrios Kantas, Pulmonologist/Intensivist-Somnologist, Sleep Medicine Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota,United States

James M. Krueger, Regents Professor, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

Leon C. Lack, Emeritus Professor, School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Shyong Li, Department of Anesthesiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Mainland China.

Mauro Manconi, Sleep Center, Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland, Civic Hospital of Lugano, Lugano, Università della Svizzera Italiana and Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.

Dr Md Dilshad Manzar, Assistant Professor of Physiology, Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah, Saudi Arabia.

Runtang Meng, PhD, MM, MBBS, School of Public Health, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Emmanuel Mignot, Craig Reynolds Professor of Sleep Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Antonio Moffa, MD, PhDs in Integrated Biomedical Sciences/ Science of Aging and Tissue Regeneration, ENT Specialist, Integrated Therapies in Otolaryngology, Campus Bio-Medico University, Rome, Italy.

Gabriel Natan Pires: Departamento de Psicobiologia - Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo.

Arcady Putilov, Chief Researcher, Head of Independent Research Group, Group of Biomedical Math-Modelling, Research Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics of the Federal Research Centre for Fundamental and Translational Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia.

Shantha Rajaratnam is Professor of Sleep and Circadian Medicine at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Susan Redline, Professor of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Federico Salfi, PhD, MSc, Research Fellow, Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, Italy. 

Serena Scarpelli, Dr, Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

Neomi Shah, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.; System Vice Chair of Medicine for Faculty Affairs; Professor of Medicine; Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine; Associate Division Chief (Academic Affairs), Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; New York, USA.

Virend K. Somers, Professor of Medicine, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, USA.

Rao Sun, MD, PhD, Department of Anesthesiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

Redha Taiar, Professor, Teacher at UFRSTAPS, University of Reims Champaign France.

Pasquale Tondo, M.D, Pulmonology, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy.

Elena Urrestarazu, Sleep Unit, Clinical Neurophysiology, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Spain.

Eus J.W. Van Someren, Professor and Head, Department of Sleep and Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, Netherlands

John Winkelman, Chief, Sleep Disorders Clinical Research Program, Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts, USA.

Nevin FW Zaki, Professor, ESRS Somnologist, Consultant Psychiatrist at NAAFH, Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, Mansoura University, Manager of sleep research unit, Middle East coordinator of world sleep day, Egypt.

Jamie Zeitzer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA