The Dangers of a Good Night's Sleep: Sleeping Pills, Dementia, and Mortality
The Aging Initiative is pleased to announce a translational research speaker event with Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, one of the world’s leading physician-scientists in sleep and circadian biology. Dr. Czeisler is the Frank Baldino, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he serves as Director of Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine and Division Chief of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Dr. Czeisler is a pioneering researcher whose four decades of groundbreaking work helped explain how sleep and circadian rhythms shape human health, longevity, and aging. His landmark work showed that light is a powerful biological signal that can reset the human circadian pacemaker, demonstrating that circadian disruption and sleep deficiency are major modifiable risk factors for age-related diseases, including dementia, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality, reshaping how clinicians and researchers think about sleep timing, alertness, and downstream disease risk.
His advocacy work has influenced occupational safety standards, medical training reforms, and public awareness campaigns about the dangers of drowsy driving and shift work. He has served on scientific advisory boards for biotechnology companies developing novel sleep and circadian therapeutics, and his research has directly informed FDA guidance on sleep medication safety in older adults. He has advised NASA on circadian countermeasures for spaceflight and sleep-wake performance, and he’s also worked with elite performance organizations, including professional sports teams such as the Boston Celtics, Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Cleveland Browns.
He has received a multitude of honors, including the National Sleep Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, the Royal College of Physicians’ Adrian Gold Medal, Stanford Medicine’s J.E. Wallace Sterling Lifetime Achievement Award, NASA’s Director’s Innovation Award, and the NIOSH Director’s Award for Scientific Leadership. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the International Academy of Astronautics.