Orfeu M. Buxton

• Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) co-funded faculty

• Facets of sleep health in a biopsychosocial framework
• Biomarkers of health and well being including digital biomarkers to biological specimens
• Acoustic disruption and enhancement of sleep
• Successful aging and resilience across the life course

2018-Pres.    Professor, Biobehavioral Health Department, Penn State, University Park PA

2018-2019    Adjunct Prof, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Boston MA

2014-2018    Adjunct Assoc Prof, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston MA

2014-2020    Lecturer on Medicine, Div. of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

2013-2018    Associate Professor, Biobehavioral Health Department, Penn State, University Park PA

2013-2014    Asst Prof, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston MA

2011-2014    Asst Prof of Medicine, Div. of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

2003-2011    Instructor in Medicine, Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

2003-2020    Assoc. Neuroscientist, Dept. of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA

2000-2003    Post-doctoral Fellow, Dept of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1997-2000    Traveling Scholar, Dept. of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1993-2000    Pre-doctoral Fellow, Neurobiology and Physiology Dept., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL

Brief Biography

Dr. Buxton directs the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory at Penn State. His research primarily focuses on the causes of chronic sleep deficiency in the workplace, home, and society, the health consequences of chronic sleep deficiency, and the physiologic and social mechanisms by which these outcomes arise. Ongoing interdisciplinary studies in free-ranging humans of all ages address sleep health and wellbeing across the life course. Current studies include the long-running Child and Family Well-Being Study and the Einstein Aging Study. Dr. Buxton received his PhD in Neuroscience from Northwestern University. Dr. Buxton has published over 130 peer-reviewed original reports and has an active NIH-funded research program in sleep health.

Dr. Buxton serves as the second Editor in Chief for Sleep Health (sleephealthjournal.org).

Grant focus areas:

The causes of sleep deficiency (insufficient duration or inadequate sleep quality) in the workplace, home, and society.

The health consequences of sleep deficiency, especially cardiometabolic outcomes, and the physiologic and social mechanisms by which these outcomes arise.

Director, Sleep, Health, & Society Program

mPI roles:

• Application of ambulatory methods for assessing short- and long-term associations of sleep health with cognitive decline in older adults (R01AG062622)
• Einstein Aging Study (P01AG003949)
• Investigating Sleep-Related Disparities in U.S. Children’s Learning Difficulties (R03HD104796)

Co-investigator role:

• Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UL1TR002014)
• Preventing Obesity through Intervention during Infancy (R01DK088244)
• The Fragile Families Sleep Sub-Study: Sleep Health Trajectories as a Mechanism for Understanding Disparities in Young Adulthood (R01HD073352)
• Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health Disparities at the US/Mexico Border: The Nogales Cardiometabolic Health and Sleep (NoCHeS) Study (R01MD011600)
• Sleep Health Profiles in Middle-aged Workers in Relation to Cardiovascular and Cognitive Health (R56AG065251)
• Sleep as a Mechanism through Which Marital Quality Influences Older Adults’ Mental Health (R03AG064360)
• A non-pharmacological multi-modal therapy to improve sleep and cognition to reduce mild cognitive impairment risk (R44AG056250)
• Cohort Difference in Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Education Effect and Sex Difference (R03AG070812)
• Psychosocial and Neighborhood Mechanisms and Consequences of Black-White Sleep Disparities on Cognition (UF1AG072619)

For undergraduate research opportunities, please contact Abi Dadzie (amd7593@psu.edu).

In the News

• WTIF public radio, Harrisburg PA “Penn State study: Job flexibility = healthy hearts” (Dec 13th, 2023)
• University of Arizona lecture: “Sleep Health for Successful Cardiovascular and Cognitive Aging: Findings from the Sleep, Health & Society Collaboratory” (Video Password: 135765)
• Harvard Division of Sleep Medicine special Lecture: Sleep, Work, and Unfair Treatment. (video)
• "Sleep Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic" Webinar
• Reach podcast (WPSU) episode 07, Human and Environmental Health series: "Work Family and Health Study" 
• The Conversation: Just 16 minutes of sleep loss can harm work concentration the next day
• Reach podcast (WPSU) episode 01: The Family
• "You say you want a Sleep Revolution". Research Matters
• Washington Post: "The pandemic is ruining our sleep. Experts say ‘coronasomnia’ could imperil public health."
• Penn State News: "Penn State research informs Pennsylvania report on school start times."
• New York Times, Booming blog, “Ask an Expert” - Taking Questions on Causes and Effects of Sleep Deficiency
• New York Times, Booming blog, "Advice About Sleep Deficiency in Midlife" - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Scientific American: "Night Noise: What a Sleeping Brain Hears"
• NIOSH Science Blog: "Sleep, Pain, and Hospital Workers"
• NIOSH Science Blog: "Work-family Conflict, Sleep, and the Heart"
• NBC Nightly News: "Shift workers may be prone to diabetes" (Video)
• New York Times: "The Clatter of the Hospital Room"
• Wall Street Journal: "Cutting the Cost of Cacophony in Hospitals"
• Press Release: "Brain rhythm predicts ability to sleep through a noisy night"
• HealthDay: "Sleep Plays Important Role in Cardiometabolic Disease Risk"
• Reuters: "Adequate sleep tied to healthier diets in truckers"
• BWH News Brief: "Sleep and insulin sensitivity"
• Ignites.com: "People Feature: You Snooze, You Win?"
• Science Careers: "NPA Founders Find Success"