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Psychology

Amy R. Wolfson, Ph.D.

Professor
Amy Wolfson

Education

  • B.A. (Psychology) - Harvard University
  • M.A. (Clinical Psychology) - Washington University
  • Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology) - Washington University
  • Post-doctoral Fellowship - Stanford University
  • Clinical-Child Psychology Internship - State University of New York (SUNY) Health Science Center

Courses Taught

  • PY 101 - Introductory Psychology
  • PY 202 - Psychopathology
  • PY 418 & 419 - Sleep, Health, and Behavior and Circadian Rhythms

Publications

Books

  • Wolfson, A. R., & Montgomery-Downs, H. (Eds.). (2013). The Oxford handbook of infant, child, and adolescent sleep and behavior. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
  • Wolfson, A. R. (2001). The women's book of sleep: A complete resource guide. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

Edited Volumes and Journal Issues

  • Troxel, W., & Wolfson, A. R. (Eds.). (2017). Sleep science and policy: A focus on school start times [Special issue]. Sleep Health, 3(6).
  • Sharkey, K., & Wolfson, A. R. (Eds.). (2016). Women and sleep [Special issue]. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 2(4).

Articles

  • Meltzer, L. J., Short, M., Booster, G. D., Gradisar, M., Marco, C. A., Wolfson, A. R., & Carskadon, M. A. (2019). Pediatric motor activity during sleep as measured by actigraphy. Sleep, 42(1), [zsy196]. [doi]
  • Wolfson, A. R., Harkins, E., Johnson, M., & Marco, C. (2015). Effects of the Young Adolescent Sleep Smart Program on sleep hygiene practices, sleep health efficacy, and behavioral well-being. Sleep Health, 1(3), 197-204. [doi]
  • Au, R., Carskadon, M., Millman, R., Wolfson, A. R., & Braverman, P. K. (2014). School start times for adolescents. Pediatrics, 134(3), 642-649. [doi]
  • Short, M. A., Gradisar, M., Lack. L. C., Wright, H. R., Dewald, J. F., Wolfson, A. R., & Carskadon, M. A. (2012). A cross-cultural comparison of sleep duration between U. S. and Australian adolescents: The effect of school start time, parent-set bedtimes, and extracurricular load. Health Education & Behavior, 40(3), 323-330. [doi]
  • Marco, C. A., Wolfson, A. R., Sparling, M., & Azuaje, A. (2012). Family socioeconomic status and sleep patterns of young adolescents. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 10(1), 70-80. [doi]

Book Chapters and Monographs

  • Ziporyn, T., & Wolfson, A. R. (2018). Adolescent sleep and later school start times. In F. P. Cappuccio, M. A. Miller, S. W. Lockley, & S. M. W. Rajaratnam (Eds.), Sleep, health, and society: From aetiology to public health (2nd edition, pp. 215-223). Oxford University Press.
  • Stremler, R., Sharkey, K. M., & Wolfson, A. R. (2015). Postpartum period and early motherhood. In M. Kryger, T. Roth, & W. C. Dement (Eds.), Principles and practice of sleep medicine (6th edition, pp. 1547-1552). Elsevier Health Sciences.

Other Publications

  • Wolfson, A. R., Owens, J., Pelayo, R., & Ziporyn-Snider, T. (2018, September 12). Why early school times and the adolescent brain don't mix [Letter to the editor]. LA Times. [link]
  • Lewin, D. S., Wolfson, A. R., Bixler, E. O., & Carskadon, M. A. (2016). Duration isn't everything. Health sleep in children and teens: Duration, individual need, and timing. Commentary on Paruthi et al. Consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine on the recommended amount of sleep for healthy children: Methodology and discussion. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 12(11), 1549-1561. [doi]
  • Wolfson, A. R. (2015, September 23). Turning to the humanities in times of crisis [Opinion editorial]. Baltimore Sun. [link]

Areas of Specialization

Amy R. Wolfson's longstanding scholarship focuses broadly on adolescents' sleep health and daytime functioning with a deep commitment to preventive interventions, including delaying school start times and her Sleep-Smart program for early adolescents. Her research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and she is the author of two books, The Women's Book of Sleep: A Complete Resource Guide and The Oxford Handbook of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Sleep and Behavior.

Dr. Wolfson's current collaborative work (with Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services, Drs. Marianna Carlucci and Stephanie Crowley, Rush Medical College, and Loyola students) is examining the sleep health, schedules, and environment of youth residing in the juvenile justice system. Moreover, she is also working with colleagues at the University of Houston and Fairleigh Dickinson University on sleep education for foster caregivers, and with colleagues at Johns Hopkins on improving sleep for hospitalized children.

Dr. Wolfson is one of the co-authors on the AAP 2014 Policy Statement on healthy school start times and co-edited Sleep Health's special issue on school start times. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she and colleagues conducted a national online survey of adolescents' sleep and learning schedules, concluding that middle and high school students got more sleep if they had later school start times and that hybrid schedules were associated with the greatest night-to-night variability in sleep schedules and duration.

Currently, she is an associate editor of Sleep Health and on the Board of Directors of the Sleep Research Society. In all her sleep health projects, she loves engaging her students in her passion - sleep health research and interventions!