Faculty and Staff Directory

Assistant Professor
Department of Translational Medicine and Physiology

Education

• Western Washington University, BA, Psychology
• Eastern Washington University, MS, Clinical Psychology
• Washington State University, PhD, Experimental Psychology

Areas of Research

Sleep deprivation, cognitive performance, sleep physiology, affect, stress, sleep disorders, sleep medicine, clinical/translational trials.

Research Focus

Our highly controlled laboratory-based studies examine the impact of sleep loss on cognitive, affective, and physiological functioning. To measure this, I use a combination of computer-based cognitive tasks, physiological measures such as heart rate variability, electrodermal skin conductance, and stress induction, in addition to validated affective questionnaires. The results of which provide insight into the etiology of whole-body functioning in both healthy and sleep disordered populations under variable conditions of sleep loss.

My home-based research is focused on long-term monitoring of sleep in a naturalistic, home environment to objectively measure sleep parameters in an ecologically valid manner.

Research

Hansen DA, Satterfield BC, Layton ME, Van Dongen HPA. Sleep deprivation and sleep-onset insomnia are associated with blunted physiological reactivity to stressors. Military Medicine, 2021; doi:10.1093/milmed/usaa464.

Hansen DA, Layton ME, Riedy SM, Van Dongen HPA. Psychomotor vigilance impairment during total sleep deprivation is exacerbated in sleep-onset insomnia. Nature and Science of Sleep, 2019; doi: 10.2147/NSS.S224641.

Hansen DA, Ramakrishnan S, Satterfield BC, Wesensten NJ, Layton ME, Reifman J, Van Dongen HPA. Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study of repeated-dose caffeine during 48 hours of total sleep deprivation. Psychopharmacology, 2018; doi:10.1007/s00213-018-5140-0

Grant DA, Honn KA, Layton ME, Riedy SM, Van Dongen HPA. 3-minute smartphone-based and tablet-based psychomotor vigilance tests for the assessment of reduced alertness due to sleep deprivation. Behavior Research Methods, 2016; doi:10.3758/s13428-016-0763-8.

Grant DA, Van Dongen HPA. Individual differences in sleep duration and responses to sleep loss. The Genetic Basis of Sleep and Sleep Disorders. P Shaw, M Tafti, MJ Thorphy (Eds.) New York, NY: Cambridge Press.

Gazendam JAC, Van Dongen HPA, Grant DA, Freedman NS, Zwaveling JH, Schawb RJ. Altered circadian rhythmicity in patients in the ICU. Chest, 2013; 8:483-489.