Mary Carskadon

Who is Mary Carskadon?

Mary A. Carskadon, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is also the Director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Research Lab at E.P. Bradley Hospital. She is considered to be an expert on sleep and circadian rhythms during childhood and adolescence along with issues related to daytime sleepiness. She has also contributed important research on school start times as it relates to sleep patterns and sleepiness in children.

Carskadon studied psychology at Gettysburg College and graduated in 1969. She received a Ph.D. in neuro- and biobehavioral sciences in 1979 at Stanford University. At Stanford, she studied under William C. Dement. Along with Dement, she developed the Multiple Sleep Latency Test used to clinically determine sleepiness in sleep disordered patients, particularly by measuring daytime sleep onset latency. Carskadon started her own research group at Brown University in 1985. Her research in adolescent sleep/wake behavior has resulted in proposed changes in public policy.