Faculty Profile

Division of Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Department of Neurology, Brigham and Woman’s – Faulkner Hospital

1) Epilepsy and circadian rhythms: Epilepsy is a chronic condition, but seizures occur at distinct times, which may not be random. Dr. Pavlova's major project is to answer the question: what affects the time of a seizure: sleep, wakefulness, and/or the body clock? Dr. Pavlova and her colleagues are answering this question by studying volunteers with epilepsy on a 5 hr and 40 min 'day', so wakefulness and sleep are observed both during their 'biological day' and during their 'biological night'. 

2) Sleep disorders: A surprising number of abnormalities are seen in healthy volunteers for research studies.  Dr. Pavlova also performed analyses on the effect of age on sleep and breathing abnormalities in healthy individuals without sleep complaints.

3) Polysomnogram development: As the field of sleep evolves, more and more patients with different neurological disorders are referred for diagnosis and treatment. While the standard polysomnographic montage is useful for most disease categories, some of the sleep disorder patients have abnormal behaviors during sleep and/or suspected epilepsy. Combined full montage video EEG/PSG monitoring is performed at the Faulkner Sleep laboratory upon request from the referring physicians. As this is not a widely used procedure, Dr. Pavlova is performing a formal analysis of the utility and optimal methodology for these studies.

4) Sleep and endocrine function: Dr. Pavlova is involved in 3 collaborative projects on the effects of sleep restriction on endocrine function.

5) Sleep and EEG in pregnancy.  An additional study to investigate the change in EEG in pregnancy has been initiated.

Dr. Pavlova is a trained clinician in neurology, neurophysiology and epilepsy, and in sleep medicine.

Jong Lee, MD 2006
Shilpa Rahangdale, MD 2006 - 2007
Ina E. Djolandic, MD 2006 - 2007
Ellen Bubrick, MD 2006 - Present
Autumn Klein, MD, PhD 2006 - Present
Sebastian Espinosa, MD MPH 2008 - Present
Brendan Lucey, MD 2008 - Present
Rohit Das, MD 2008 - Present

Dr. Pavlova has taught in CME courses, such as the "Sleep Disorders in the Intensive Review of Neurology", and numerous Neurophysiology lectures.
Dr. Pavlova is also responsible for the sleep training of Neurophysiology fellows, and is involved in the training of neurology residents (mainly as attending on the neurology consult service).

Additional Publications
Pavlova M.  Daytime sleepiness and Parkinson’s Disease. Journal Watch Neurology. May 2006, p.38

Pavlova M, Bromfield EB.  Delayed sleep onset in patients with temporal vs. extratemporal epilepsy. Epilepsia. Vol. 41 suppl., 2000; p. 172

Pavlova M, Gleason R, Regestein QR.  Vigilance impairment and work impairment in patients complaining of insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness. Journal of Healthcare Safety, Compliance & Infection Control. Vol 3, March,1999 3:1-8

Pavlova M, Kawasaki S, Regestein Q.  Vigilance impairments in insomnia patients compared with attention deficit disorder patients. Sleep Research 1998 27:257.K3

M Pavlova, O Berg, S Roberts, R Gleason, Q Regestein.  Hyperarousal scale scores among sleep disorder patients. Sleep Research. 1997 26:207

Pavlova M, MacAnulty G, Duffy F, Regestein QR.  P300 evoked potential and hyperarousal behavioral traits in chronic fatigue syndrome patients. Sleep Research. 1997 26:34

Pavlova M Regestein QR.  Self-reported behavioral correlates of total EEG power and cortical evoked potentials in insomnia and control subjects. Sleep Research. 1997 26:465

Pavlova M, Koff M, Weidler D, Regestein QR.  Sleepiness may predict CES-D depression scores in psychology students. Sleep Research. 1997 26:208

Pavlova M, MacAnulty G, Duffy F, Regestein Q.  Auditory evoked potential abnormalities associated with hyperarousal in patients with insomnia or chronic fatigue. Sleep Research. 1997 26:33

Pavlova M, Gleason R, Regestein QR.  Vigilance impairments observed among sleep disorders compared with adult attention deficit disorder on a six-minute performance test. Sleep Research. 1996 25:331

Regestein QR, Natarajan V, Roberts S, Pavlova M, Gleason R.  Types of distress associated with late bedtimes in a group of college women. Sleep Research. 1996 25:343

Pavlova M, Regestein QR, Gleason R, Murawski B, Khan W.  Differences in continuous performance test measures between female and male sleep apnea patients. Sleep Research. 1996 25:329

Pavlova M, Gleason R, Regestein Q.  Specifics of placebo response in patients complaining of insomnia. Sleep Research. 1996 25:330

Regestein QR, Pavlova M,  Cesare F.  Validation of the hyperarousal scale in primary insomnia subjects. Sleep Research. 1996 25:344

Pavlova MK, Shea SA, Scheer FA, Bromfield EB. Is there a circadian variation of epileptiform abnormalities in idiopathic generalized epilepsy?
Epilepsy Behav. 2009 Sep 26. [Epub ahead of print] [PMID: 19786369]

Pavlova MK, Duffy JF, Shea SA. Polysomnographic respiratory abnormalities in asymptomatic individuals.
Sleep. 2008 Feb 1;31(2):241-8. [PMID: 18274272]

Pavlova MK, Shea SA, Bromfield EB. Day/night patterns of focal seizures.
Epilepsy Behav. 2004 Feb;5(1):44-9. [PMID: 14751206]

Pavlova M, Berg O, Gleason R, Walker F, Roberts S, Regestein Q. Self-reported hyperarousal traits among insomnia patients.
J Psychosom Res. 2001 Aug;51(2):435-41. [PMID: 11516766]

Reviews

Regestein QR, Pavlova M. Treatment of delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 1995 Sep;17(5):335-45. Review. [PMID: 8522148]