SPOKANE, Wash. Thanks to a special grant acquired by sleep researchers Gregory Belenky, M.D., and Hans Van Dongen, Ph.D., Washington State University Spokane’s sleep and performance research center will soon have the very latest equipment, placing it at the forefront of sleep and performance research laboratories worldwide. “Enabled by the DURIP, we will combine behavioral testing, standard sleep/wake electrophysiological recording, and continuous brain imaging to make major advances in our understanding of sleep and how to manage sleep to sustain performance in a 24/7 society,” said Belenky, director of the sleep and performance research center. Established in 2004 through $4.5 million in congressional funding, the sleep and performance research center at WSU Spokane includes a state-of-the-art sleep research laboratory located on the Riverpoint campus. Occupying 5,000 square feet in the South Campus Facility, the lab includes a four-bedroom sleep suite for in-residence lab studies; and space for faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students. Slated to officially open later this year, the lab is one of only a handful in the world that can accommodate carefully controlled experiments to study the effects of sleep and sleep loss on human cognitive functioning. In addition, it serves as a base for staging field studies related to sleep and performance. WSU WSU
The pair recently received more than $725,000 from the Department of Defense in response to their grant proposal to the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP). DURIP supports the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment that augments current university capabilities or develops new university capabilities to perform cutting‑edge defense research. An example of such research would be the sleep and performance research center’s fatigue management studies, which have the potential to significantly improve the work performance and quality of life of military personnel.
Belenky and Van Dongen will use the funds to outfit the center’s newly built laboratory space located in WSU Spokane’s South Campus Facility with an integrated measurement and data management system to conduct long-term residential lab studies into sleep and performance. This system will include:
The researchers and their staff are currently examining equipment that they are considering to acquire.
“We hope to have everything ready to start our first laboratory experiments this fall,” Van Dongen said.
About the Sleep and
About
WSU Spokane is the urban campus of WSU, a land-grant research university founded in 1890. The campus features advanced studies and research in health sciences and health professions, the design disciplines, education, social and policy sciences, and science and technology.
Related Web sites:
August 2004 News Release on Gregory Belenky: https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=4674
October 2006 News Release on Hans Van Dongen: https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=5502
WSU Office of Research: www.research.wsu.edu
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