The University of Arizona Health Sciences is opening the doors to its new Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neuroscience Research. 

Previously, researchers conducted sleep studies in a leased facility located above a Tucson bar and grill. The new facility, built using a $5 million construction grant from the National Institutes of Health Office of the Director, will give investigators access to state-of-the-art technology to conduct innovative sleep and circadian rhythm research.

The new facility offers a highly controlled environment aimed at enhancing human research involving sleep and circadian rhythms to improve understanding of disease processes involving multiple biological systems.

“The University of Arizona Health Sciences has studied sleep for more than four decades, during which time our researchers have made pioneering advances in understanding the connections between sleep and cardiovascular disease, neurocognition, and behavioral interventions,” says Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for the University of Arizona Health Sciences, in a release. “The Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neuroscience Research’s new location and facilities will allow us to find new solutions to critical sleep issues, improving health and human potential for all.”

The new state-of-the-art facility will allow for continuous monitoring of the environment of each room using sensors for light, noise, inhaled gases, and room, core body, and skin temperatures that will be collected and recorded in a time synchronous manner with the sleep and circadian rhythms in computerized software. The facility enables sophisticated short- and long-term experimentation that could simulate conditions in the International Space Station or future space missions. 

The new facility is located in the basement of the Arizona Health Sciences Center building at 1501 N. Campbell Avenue in Tucson, Ariz. 

Photo caption: Sicily La Rue, lead sleep technologist at the Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neuroscience Research, applies polysomnographic electrodes, used for measuring sleep, to SCAN Lab technician Camryn Wellman in one of the sleep rooms.

Photo credit: Kris Hanning/University of Arizona Health Sciences