Dr. Dayna Johnson “Environmental Determinants of Sleep and Circadian Health”
Join us in person in CNR 5001 or via ZOOM for a seminar by Dr. Dayna Johnson on “Environmental Determinants of Sleep and Circadian Health”
Full Bio:
Dr. Dayna A. Johnson is the Rollins Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and jointly appointed in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. She is the director of the Sleep Epidemiology Research Group (SERG). Dr. Johnson is a sleep epidemiologist whose research focuses on the social and environmental determinants of sleep health and sleep disorders, and their implications for adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and cognitive decline. Dr. Johnson’s research is particularly noted for addressing the underlying social and environmental factors contributing to sleep disorders and insufficient sleep among different populations, with a significant emphasis on African American communities.
Dr. Johnson received her PhD in Epidemiologic Science from the University of Michigan, where she laid the groundwork for her extensive research into sleep health. Following her doctoral studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which further solidified her expertise in the field.
Dr. Johnson’s research aims to identify and mitigate the factors that contribute to disparities in sleep health. She is actively involved in studies that explore how household and neighborhood-level factors influence sleep patterns and how these patterns affect health outcomes like hypertension. One of her key research projects, the ARISE Study (Assessment of Rhythms in Sleep and the Environment study, a NHLBI R01 grant), focuses on measuring environmental factors in real-time and their impact on sleep and circadian disruption and cardiovascular health (ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and arterial stiffness) among African Americans adults. She is also funded by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to study the influence of a culturally tailored digital sleep health campaign on promoting better sleep and screening of sleep disorders. In addition to our primary research, she conducts secondary analyses of large epidemiologic cohort studies including Jackson Heart Study, REGARDS, and MESA. As part of SERG, Dr. Johnson leads the sleep reading center at Emory, with expertise in sleep data collection over time and analysis. Dr. Johnson has over 140 publications and numerous appearances in the media as a sleep expert. Her work has been featured on CBS and other prominent platforms, where she discusses strategies to improve sleep health and reduce related health disparities.
Contact hillary.barton@emory.edu with any questions.