UT Dallas to launch sleep research facility under leading neuroscientist

The University of Texas at Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth is putting the power of sleep to work under a leading sleep scientist.

On Wednesday, the university announced the creation of the Sleep Innovation Laboratories, which aim to translate neuroscience research into evidence-based strategies to help people improve their brain health by optimizing sleep.

The new facility has an initial cost of $10 million and fundraising is underway, said university spokesperson Stephanie Hoefken. The Sleep Innovation Laboratories will be housed in the Center for BrainHealth, with construction expected early next year.

The program’s inaugural director will be neuroscientist Matthew Walker, the author of Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. Walker has served as a professor at Harvard Medical School and at the University of California, Berkeley, where he led the Center for Human Sleep Science.

Over the past two decades, Walker’s research has focused on understanding the effect of sleep on human health and disease. At UT Dallas, he is eager to continue this work, he said, and aims for the Sleep Innovation Laboratories to turn sleep science “into actionable programs that make a difference to the world” and to create innovative new technologies. He will join the university in January.

Several studies have shown the effects of good sleep, from boosting learning in school-age children to easing symptoms of anxiety in people with post-traumatic stress disorder. Walker said sleep could even mitigate or prevent neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, which causes sleep disorders in people affected.

UT Dallas’ Center for BrainHealth opened in 1999 under chief director Sandra Bond Chapman, a professor of behavioral and brain sciences at the university. Since its inception, the center has helped identify factors that influence brain health and built training programs and measurements that aim to boost cognition from childhood through old age.

One flagship tool is the BrainHealth Index, an online assessment that tracks cognition, mood, social support and other factors influencing brain health. Participants receive personalized coaching and practical tips while tracking brain health every six months. Rather than screening for memory decline or dementia, the index establishes a baseline and offers steps to strengthen brain function.

With Walker steering the Sleep Innovation Laboratories, Chapman said, his research into optimizing sleep will increase the benefits of the BrainHealth Index and other cognitive interventions the center hopes to devise, turning brain health into a daily, doable habit.

“What’s so exciting is there are so many avenues of his sleep [research] that are going to catapult sleep research,” Chapman said. She added that what makes improving brain health through sleep easy is that people are willing to talk about it. “It really is this gateway that makes people [feel], ‘OK, I’ll go work on my brain health,’ because they might not otherwise know how to embrace what brain health is.”

The Sleep Innovation Laboratories will also partner with UT Dallas’ Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, said Adam Woods, a cognitive neuroscientist and dean of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UT Dallas.

Bringing neuroscience and engineering under one roof will advance discovery and real-world applications side by side, Woods said. “This is really a big part of our growth as UT Dallas leans into our ability to be multidisciplinary but with an eye towards application in the real world.”

Woods expressed interest in seeing the Sleep Innovation Laboratories use artificial intelligence to gather data on and create solutions for improving sleep, whether through wearable devices or through noninvasive brain stimulation.

For Chapman and Walker, the facility will position Dallas as the epicenter of a brain health revolution.

“When you look at engineering programs around the country, it’s very hard to find places that beat UT Dallas,” Walker said.

Miriam Fauzia is a science reporting fellow at The Dallas Morning News. Her fellowship is supported by the University of Texas at Dallas. The News makes all editorial decisions.