Speaker: Dr. Janet Best, Department of Mathematics, The Ohio State University

Abstract: To sleep "like a baby" means to sleep peacefully and soundly. Yet parents often observe that their infant's sleep has frequent interruptions and perhaps a short sleep-wake cycle; statistical analysis confirms that infant sleep and adult sleep have different dynamical structures. Perhaps it is the prevalence of chronic sleep disorders that has adults looking back wistfully at sleeping babies. Compounding the difficulty of managing a sleep disorder is the news that disruptions in normal sleep-wake activity have been associated with many long-term health consequences. I will discuss what is known about the biological basis of sleep including controversies in the field. I will then show how mathematical models, both deterministic and random, help us to understand sleep-wake rhythms from newborns to adults while also yielding insights into some sleep disorders. The results are sure to change the way you think about sleep and will reveal opportunities to participate in uncovering the mathematical structures that arise in sleep and other state transitions.