MEET AN SBSM FOUNDER - CHRISTINA MCCRAE, PhD, CBSM
As one of the organizing and founding members of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and the second President (2011-2012), I have been so excited to see the SBSM continue to grow and develop over the past seven years. I have been particularly excited to watch as new members join the society, get involved, and change it for the better. I love seeing all the new member benefits and have enjoyed attending the SBSM receptions at SLEEP.
My winding pathway to behavioral sleep medicine
My own pathway to behavioral sleep medicine and eventual involvement in the launching of the SBSM has been anything but direct. I have been involved in research since 1984, but my early focus was aging. My undergraduate (Penn State; Robert Stern, PhD), master’s (Washington University in St. Louis; Martha Storandt, PhD), and doctoral (Washington University in St. Louis; Richard Abrams, PhD) research focused on aging-related topics. It was not until late in graduate school that I became interested in sleep. Initially, my interest was clinical, and I completed a year long practicum as a behavioral sleep therapist for the Sleep Disorders Center at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis (supervisors Amy Bertelson, PhD; Stephen Duntley, MD). My internship year was spent at the Audie L. Murphy VA in San Antonio where I (again) focused primarily on aging, but also completed a rotation in sleep (supervisor Paul Igmundson, PhD).
It was not until my postdoctoral fellowship with Kenny Lichstein, PhD at the University of Memphis that I became involved in sleep research for the first time. As a post-doc, I served as the project coordinator for Kenny’s randomized controlled trial on the impact of the combination of CBT-I and tapered withdrawal on sleep and sleep medication use in hypnotic dependent older adults. That was also my first experience with clinical trial research as my previous experiences had been largely experimental in nature. My dissertation was a series of four related experiments that each required about a week to run participants. Needless to say, I experienced some research ‘culture shock’ while on post-doc as I learned about the amount of effort and time required to run a clinical trial. Despite that, I was hooked and have been involved in conducting behavioral clinical sleep trials (primarily CBT-I or some variation thereof) ever since. I have also branched out from my initial aging only focus and now conduct research and clinical work with children and adults of all ages.
My goal in providing this overview of my background is to demonstrate that your path to behavioral sleep medicine does not need to be a straight one. What matters is that you eventually find your way here like I did!
My research program on comorbid insomnia
The common thread in my current research program is comorbid insomnia and my desire to learn more about potentially shared mechanisms underlying the high rates of comorbidity between insomnia and many other chronic conditions across the lifespan. Better understand of those mechanisms will inform better management and treatment of not only insomnia, but also (ideally) the comorbid condition.
My specific areas of research interest are:
- Mechanisms underlying normal and pathological sleep
- Linkages between sleep and cognition
- Daily (or nightly!) variability in sleep and sleep-related behaviors
- Efficacy and effectiveness of cognitive behavioral interventions to treat comorbid insomnia in autism, cancer, cardiac disease, chronic pain, and obesity.
Reasons for starting the SBSM
Timing, timing, timing. I recognize that my response here is oversimplified, because a variety of factors contributed to the timing being right for the establishment of a behavioral sleep medicine focused society. The groundwork laid by many individuals in our field in terms of clinical service, research, and professional service, including (but not limited to) the establishment of committees and interest groups in broader focused professional societies, Behavioral Sleep Medicine (the journal), certification in behavioral sleep medicine, and accreditation of behavioral sleep medicine training programs. In 2007 when myself and fellow originators started meeting and discussing the potential for SBSM, the behavioral sleep medicine field had grown sufficiently and established key components of the infrastructure (see groundwork above) needed to support the development of a sustainable, dedicated membership organization. The needs of our growing field had outgrown what we were able to get through interest groups and committees that were part of larger, more broadly focused membership organizations. We both wanted and (importantly) were ready to take control of our own destiny!
It took a village
While I appreciate being acknowledged for the contributions that I and my fellow originators made (and continue to make) to the SBSM, I also want to thank everyone who has made contributions. There are too many to name individuals by name. However, I think it is important to note that the SBSM was made possible and importantly, continues to be made possible by the contributions of its many amazing members. It literally ‘took a village’ to launch the SBSM, and village input is needed to keep it going! I encourage all members to get involved in whatever capacity you are able (sustaining your membership, joining a committee, attending the reception, etc.).
My involvement in the launching of the SBSM alongside my fellow co-originator organizers (Kenny Lichstein, PhD; Michael Perlis, PhD; Michael Smith, PhD, Daniel Taylor, PhD) was definitely one of the highlights of my career so far! It was definitely a labor of love (as well as some blood, sweat, and tears along the way!)…but so, so worth it.