Stacey Simon, PhD, Advances Sleep Medicine

Stacey Simon, PhD, eats, breathes and sleeps — sleep. After all, she is a pediatric sleep psychologist. At Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Breathing Institute, Dr. Simon works with kids and families to help manage behavioral sleep problems. In the lab, she’s looking for the why — the underlying mechanisms that cause poor sleep for adolescents and children.

In recognition of her dedication to the field, the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine honored Dr. Simon with the Outstanding Mid-Career Advocate Award, celebrating her contributions to research and public education.

Dr. Simon’s journey to become a sleep psychologist began by happenstance. During graduate school, she worked in a pulmonary and sleep medicine clinic where a mentor showed her the profound impacts of sleep.

“I kind of fell into sleep,” Dr. Simon explains. “But learning how critical it is for our health, wellbeing and overall life was really eye-opening.”

From that moment, she was hooked. Now, years later, Dr. Simon’s work extends beyond diagnosing sleep issues. She's uncovering how poor sleep patterns impact mental and physical health.

“When we get better sleep, our mood is better and so is our ability to concentrate. It has this tremendous effect on children and a huge impact on parents. It’s transformative,” Dr. Simon says.

Over the last year, Dr. Simon published several papers analyzing circadian timing, behavioral interventions for sleep disruption, barriers to sleep for adolescents with Type 1 diabetes and more.

Changing circadian timing

It’s no surprise that teens don’t get enough sleep. It’s common for teens to experience a delayed circadian rhythm, meaning they aren’t tired until later as their internal clock shifts during puberty. This, combined with early school start times, often leaves teens tired and less focused in class.

“We’re asking them to get up to go to school at a time where their brain and body thinks they should be sleeping,” she says.

But it’s not just about reduced focus and performance in school. There’s also evidence that not enough sleep can lead to insulin sensitivity, affecting how the body regulates sugar.

One of Dr. Simon’s recent projects helped teens address this by moving their bedtime earlier by an hour on school nights. She enrolled 26 teens with insufficient sleep. On average, their sleep times increased by 1.37 hours and bedtimes advanced 1.4 hours.

While they were getting more sleep, the teens did not experience a change in melatonin production — the hormone that signals to our bodies when to feel tired. There was still circadian misalignment.

“This is likely because they still had to wake up early in the morning at times where their bodies are still secreting that melatonin. This suggests we really need to directly address that circadian misalignment in these adolescents,” Dr. Simon says.

Sleep management and Type 1 diabetes

The relationship between sleep and insulin is symbiotic: Sleep deprivation reduces insulin sensitivity while insulin resistance can, in turn, disrupt sleep.

In a separate project, Dr. Simon assessed sleep behaviors in teens with Type 1 diabetes as they are more likely to face sleep issues than non-diabetic peers. For example, teens with Type 1 diabetes may have to get up in the middle of the night to test or treat high or low blood sugar.

To better understand the impact on families, Dr. Simon and her team of researchers interviewed 20 teen and parent pairs. Researchers interviewed the two groups separately to better understand their sleep schedule, overnight diabetes management and more.

“Is sleep important? What makes sleep hard or easy?” researchers asked.

While phones in the bedroom are typically discouraged for better sleep hygiene, they are a vital tool for many teens with Type 1 diabetes. Phones or other devices can help manage their diabetes. The typical “no phones at bedtime” rule can’t be easily applied here.

“They really can’t do that. They need their phones. There are benefits of this technology,” Dr. Simon says. “It made things so much easier for them. It was interesting to hear the flip side of technology.”

It’s not just the teens who are not getting enough sleep. Overnight diabetes management impacts parents too. Many parents expressed uncertainty about when to transfer diabetes care responsibilities to their child, instead choosing to handle it themselves.

This study highlights the importance of sleep management in Type 1 diabetes care for both teens and their families.

What’s next?

Building on insights from the initial Type 1 diabetes sleep assessment, Dr. Simon is preparing to start another study focused on increasing sleep duration for adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. The goal is to see if increasing sleep time improves blood sugar and insulin sensitivity.

This next phase will involve advancing their bedtimes and adding circadian interventions such as melatonin in the evening and light therapy in the morning.

“Dark at night and light in the morning helps our body regulate its internal clock,” she says. “The goal is to get us to stop secreting that melatonin.”

Since Dr. Simon first stepped into that sleep medicine clinic years ago, the field has expanded substantially. With advancements in diagnosis and treatments, Dr. Simon’s contributions have grown alongside it. Whether she’s working with patients or researching in the lab, she remains committed to one goal — ensuring everyone gets the sleep they deserve.

“Sleep is something we do every night. We don’t often think about it. Anything you want to do, sleep enables you to do it,” Dr. Simon says.