Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Sonia Ancoli-Israel

Biography

Sonia Ancoli-Israel, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus and Professor of Research in the Departments of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, Director of the Gillin Sleep and Chronomedicine Research Center, and Director of Education at the Sleep Medicine Center at UCSD. Dr. Ancoli-Israel received her Bachelor’s Degree from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, a Master’s Degree in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ancoli-Israel’s expertise is in the field of sleep disorders and sleep research in aging. Her current interests include the longitudinal effect of sleep disorders on aging, the effect of circadian rhythms on sleep, therapeutic interventions for sleep problems in dementia, and fatigue, particularly the relationship between sleep, fatigue and circadian rhythms in cancer and other chronic illnesses. Dr. Ancoli-Israel is Past-President of the Sleep Research Society (SRS), Past-President of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, and was on the founding Executive Board of the National Sleep Foundation. She was honored in 2007 with the National Sleep Foundation Life Time Achievement Award and the SRS Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award, in 2012 with Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine Distinguished Career Award and in 2014 with the SRS Distinguished Scientist Award. Dr. Ancoli-Israel is published regularly in medical and psychiatric journals with over 400 publications in the field.

Research Interest

Her interests include the longitudinal effect of sleep disorders on aging, the effect of circadian rhythms on sleep, the use of light therapy to improve sleep and behavior in nursing home populations, and the relationship between circadian rhythms and cancer. She is immediate past-president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms and has been on the Executive Board of the Sleep Research Society and the Executive Board of the National Sleep Foundation.