#312: Allison Brager – Sleep Architecture, Chronotypes & Rescuing Performance

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Allison Brager, PhD

Dr. Allison Brager is a behavioral neurobiologist with an expertise in sleep and circadian rhythms for the United States Army (active duty), as well as their contributions to psychiatric, neurological, and inflammatory disease states. She is currently the Director of Human Performance Operations and Outreach Education at the US Army Warrior Fitness Training Center in Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Her work has examined sleep and activity regulatory mechanisms as well as adaptation and resiliency to environmental stressors such as exercise, jet lag, and sleep deprivation. She consults with US Olympic, collegiate, and professional sporting teams and major police and fire departments (e.g., NYPD, Boston) in preparation for travel and to create sleep friendly environments.

She has served on the Board of Directors of the Sleep Research Society and presently chair a public advocacy committee for the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. She previously was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as the Chief of the Sleep Research Center at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

• Sleep architecture: what should the sleep stages/cycle look like?
• What can we do to promote the best sleep architecture?
• Interventions can acutely rescue performance (cognitive or otherwise) for individuals who are sleep deprived
• Inter-individual variation of chronotypes
• Trainability: overcoming genetic chronotype if needed for work
• “Sleep resiliency”
• Light exposure early in the day: How much and how soon.
• Impact of training late in the day: does hyperarousal impact sleep?
• Do sleep measuring devices accurately track sleep stages?

• Get Podcast Transcripts
• Instagram: @docjockzzz
• ResearchGate: Allison Brager
• Meathead: Unraveling the Athletic Brain

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