Having trouble catching Zs? Wide-awake football fans are invited to learn all about sleep patterns at this week’s Pregame Showcase prior to the Vols game against the University of Georgia on Saturday, October, 5.
The Pregame Showcase is sponsored by UT’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and a biopsychologist, will present “Tick Tock: Sleep Across the Lifespan and the Role of the Internal Clock.” She will talk about how sleep patterns vary through life and explain what is considered normal.
Now in its twenty-fourth season, the Pregame Showcase gives fans the chance to hear from esteemed UT faculty prior to each gridiron matchup. This week’s showcase will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the Carolyn P. Brown University Center Ballroom (Room 213).
Free and open to the public, each showcase features a thirty-minute presentation and a fifteen-minute question-and-answer session followed by a brief reception. Door prizes will be awarded.
“Anyone who has lived with a baby, a teenager, or the very elderly will recognize that sleep patterns differ across the lifespan,” Lee said. In addition, sleep patterns can vary from person to person, which is why some people are “larks” and some are “night owls.”
Lee will provide some background on the biology of sleep control and describe some research that helps explain the variation in sleep patterns.
Lee’s research focuses on environmental interactions with behavior and physiology, as well as the interaction of early steroid hormones on social interactions and the development of adult behavior. Her work has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and ten book chapters. Lee has spoken at research conferences and universities across the United States and Canada, at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel and at the University of Mexico in Quertero. She will soon be speaking at a conference in Strasbourg, France.
Here’s the lineup for the rest of the season:
October 19—”Haunted Bangkok: Angry Spirits, Buddhist Power, and Popular Media in Thailand.” Rachelle Scott, associate professor of religious studies, will talk about the role of ghosts and other supernatural beings in Theravada Buddhism and how these stories continue to impart ethical lessons to Buddhists across Asia and around the world.
November 9—”Making the Cuts: Austerity Policies and Their Social Implications.” Jon Shefner, head of the Department of Sociology, will look at the effects of spending cuts, tax hikes, and other measures governments use to reduce their budget deficits during adverse economic conditions.
November 23—”Simulations of Solutions: Solving Problems Through Scientific Computing.” Steven Wise, associate professor of mathematics, will discuss the evolution of scientific computing and look at the challenges that lie ahead, including how we might—and might not—be able to solve some of our biggest problems with the help of computers.
—
C O N T A C T :
Lynn Champion (865-974-2992, champion@utk.edu)
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)