Sleep Research Society &

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

Undergraduate, Graduate and Postgraduate Training Opportunities 

in Basic and Clinical Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine

2001 - V Edition

 

Home Page

Laboratories

 

 

 

 

 

Institution

Flinders University

Address

School of Psychology

Flinders University

GPO Box 2100

Adelaide, S.A. 5001

Australia

 

Faculty (Name, Email address)

 

Leon Lack, Ph.D.    Leon.lack@flinders.edu.au

Types of Training Available

Undergraduate:   

Psychophysiology of States of Awareness (circadian rhythms and sleep), Sleep and Arousal Disorders and Therapies.

Graduate:           

PhD thesis supervision in any of the above areas of interest.

Postdoctoral:       

Fellowships can be sought in any of the above areas.
Residency:

Sleep Medicine at the Repatriation General Hospital Sleep Disorders Unit, Daw Park, South Australia, Australia
Internship:

Accredited Fellowship Programs in Sleep Medicine

Types of Funding Available

Possibility of graduate student scholarship for a Psychology 'Honors graduate' or M.A./M.S. degree holder. Some research assistant money and part-time teaching money often available but dependent on time of year and merits of applicant.

Current Trainees (Names and Email address)

Helen Wright     helen.wright@flinders.edu.au

Jeremy Mercer     jdm@senet.com.au

Trainees who have completed training [in the past five years] and current status (Name, Title, Institution, Email)

Kurt Lushington, Dr. The University of South Australia, kurt.lushington@unisa.edu.au

Primary Research and/or Clinical Focus of Laboratory

Circadian Rhythms and sleep
Bright light treatment of insomnia
Sleep misperception and re-training of insomniacs
Benefits of brief naps
Cognitive/behavior therapy for insomnia

Technical Capabilities of Lab

Three bedroom sleep research lab, each with 4-channel amplifiers, input through A/D converter to Macintosh computer run with LavView software system.
Three portable complete 16 channel PSG recording systems (Compumedics) for home or laboratory recording.
Twenty actigraph wrist/ankle motion sensors for ambulatory sleep and activity monitoring.
A four channel laboratory temperature (rectal and skin) amplifier input to the Mac and LabView computer software analysis system.

Primary Training Focus

        Human (Basic)
        Human (Clinical Research)
        Human (Clinical Practice)

Other Training Opportunities

 

Representative Publications For the Last Five Years

Lack, L. & Lushington, K.(1996). The rhythms of human sleep propensity and core body temperature. Journal of Sleep Research, 5: 1-11.

Lack, L., Mercer, J. & Wright, H. (1996) Circadian rhythms of early morning awakening insomniacs. Journal of Sleep Research. 5, 211-219.

Ranzijn, R. & Lack, L. (1997) The pupillary light reflex cannot be used as a measure of sleepiness. Psychophysiology, 34(1), 17-22.

Lushington, K., Pollard, K., Lack, L., Kennaway, D.J., and Dawson, D. (1998). Daytime melatonin administration in elderly good and poor sleepers: effects on core body temperature and sleep latency. Sleep , 20(12),1135-1144.

Lushington, K., Dawson, D., Kennaway, D.J., and Lack, L. (1999). The relationship between 6-sulphatoxymelatonin and polysomnographic sleep in good sleeping controls and sleep maintenance insomniacs, aged 55-80 years. Journal of Sleep Research , 8, 57-64.

Kennaway, D. J., Lushington, K., Dawson, D., Lack, L., van den Heuvel, C. and Rogers, N. (1999). Urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin excretion and aging: New results and a critical review of the literature. Journal of Pineal Research, 27, 210-220.

Lushington, K., Dawson, D. and Lack, L. (2000). Core body temperature is elevated during constant wakefulness in elderly poor sleepers. Sleep, 23, 504-510.

www link for the Lab

http://www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/Psyc/web/sleep.htm

http://www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/Psyc/web/staff/psll.htm

Research Interests

Associate Professor Leon Lack’s research interests include: Circadian Rhythms and sleep, bright light treatment of insomnia, sleep misperception and re-training of insomniacs, benefits of brief naps, cognitive/behavior therapy for insomnia.