The Science of Sleep Associate professor Ryan Brindle’s sleep lab gives students unparalleled opportunities to conduct hands-on research at the undergraduate level.

By Emily Innes
January 7, 2025

When Ryan Brindle, associate professor of cognitive and behavioral science (CBSC) at Washington and Lee University, isn’t sleeping, he’s usually thinking about sleep. More specifically, he’s conducting extensive and collaborative research with students and other academics to measure the impact sleep can have on our health and well-being.

Brindle is the director of the university’s sleep lab, which addresses questions of how stress, sleep and health are interconnected. He established W&L’s sleep lab when he joined the faculty in 2018, hoping to pass on the formative experiences he’s had with sleep research to W&L’s undergraduate students. Brindle’s research centers on the impact of mental stress on health and disease, particularly how stress impacts sleep and whether sleep can buffer the negative impact of stress and even improve health.

“There’s no part of our cognition, behavior, health or functioning in general that sleep doesn’t touch,” Brindle said. “Everything comes back to sleep.”

Brindle’s lab is one of the only undergraduate sleep labs in the country, giving W&L students a unique research opportunity. While guiding students in the lab, Brindle aims to emphasize the importance of a liberal arts perspective and the transferable skills that hands-on research can teach.

“The research couldn’t be done without the undergraduates, and it creates rich experiences for the students,” he said. “They gain so many skills that transcend the focus on science and sleep and can be applied to any field.”

Brindle has integrated the sleep lab into several of his classes, and he considers it a hallmark of W&L’s teacher-scholar model that he is able to incorporate his research focus into his curriculum. In class, students visit the sleep lab and examine data from past studies and conduct their own self-studies using Actiwatches (a device worn on the wrist that monitors sleep/wake patterns) and daily diaries. Students can also become involved in the lab through independent research, and in-lab studies — which are more time-intensive — are typically conducted by Summer Research Scholars or the lab’s research assistants.

“Ultimately, collaborative research allows students to broaden their skills, and working with faculty in this capacity is fundamental to W&L’s close-knit community.”

~ Lily George ’25 

As undergraduate research assistants, Ryan Chin ’25, Lily George ’25 and Sophia Breschi ’26 are involved in all aspects of the lab. Chin, a CBSC major with an interest in data science and statistics, said working in the sleep lab has introduced him to new technology and techniques.

“Opportunities to work with specialized equipment and contribute to original research are rare for undergraduates, and the hands-on experience with the lab’s technology has been invaluable,” he said.

George, a CBSC and German double major on the pre-medical track, was drawn to the sleep lab to gain exposure to research beyond laboratory coursework and for the opportunity to participate in collaborative research between faculty and students, an experience she considers important to the W&L experience.

“Ultimately, collaborative research allows students to broaden their skills, and working with faculty in this capacity is fundamental to W&L’s close-knit community,” George said.

The student research team recently launched a study looking at sleep and the concept of interoception, or how the body monitors itself.

“It is important for [interoception] to be functioning to monitor vital bodily functions so that homeostasis is maintained, as dysfunction of this ability is linked to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression,” said Breschi, a CBSC major who plans to pursue a career in the health professions.

Having undergone sleep studies herself, Breschi joined Brindle’s sleep lab because she was curious about the individualized factors, such as stress level and physiological differences, that affect sleep and can impact a person’s overall physical and mental health. She was pleasantly surprised to have such a hands-on role in the sleep lab, including contributing to the design and execution of the study.

“Being able to participate and have an integral role in the research process is something I never would have expected to have the chance to do as an undergraduate and is certainly an opportunity that is unique to W&L,” Breschi said. “Dr. Brindle is always extremely open to hearing our feedback and encourages us to challenge his own ideas, allowing us to feel that all of our questions carry merit and are ones to be genuinely considered.”

The lab’s current project began in the fall of 2023. In planning the study, Brindle and the students realized there wasn’t a method for measuring interoception that served their purpose, as not many studies have examined this concept. The team set out to address this gap in sleep research and pivoted their initial research questions to design a task to measure interoception, which will ultimately be used in their sleep study. After processing data from the pilot phase and making the necessary revisions, the team began testing participants with the updated methodology during Fall Term 2024.

Throughout the interoception study, one of Brindle’s priorities has been making sure the students are involved in each step of the research and learning the level of detail involved in designing and executing the methods of a study.

“I like seeing as they learn the skills and the content and then start to become independent operators in the lab themselves,” he said. “Watching their confidence and their enthusiasm grow as they go through that process is just amazing.”

Brindle’s team has found the experience equally rewarding, providing an important opportunity for them to not only expand their skills but also to see collaborative research as a mutually beneficial partnership between faculty and students.

“I feel that through Dr. Brindle’s mentorship, I am being pushed to become more of an independent and critical thinker,” Breschi said. “It exemplifies how faculty want to make every experience one that students will be able to carry with them beyond graduation, in preparation for future careers and a meaningful life.”