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Charmane I. Eastman, PhD

Charmane Eastman, PhD
Founding Director, Biological Rhythms Research Lab
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, RUSH Medical College
Education

PhD, University of Chicago
BS, State University of New York at Albany

Research Areas

Shift work, jet lag, human circadian rhythms (especially effects of bright light and melatonin), social jet lag, circadian misalignment

Contact Info:

ceastman@rush.edu
Links:
Biography

Charmane Eastman, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the founding director of the Biological Rhythms Research Laboratory at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Her research interests include human circadian rhythms and sleep, with an emphasis on the man-made circadian rhythm “disorders” due to shift work, jet travel, early work and school start times, being an extreme night owl, and the Monday morning blues. She was commissioned by NASA to develop sleep and bright light schedules that the astronauts used to reset their circadian clocks to prepare for the shift work of space shuttle missions. Under her direction her lab has studied bright light treatment of winter depression or seasonal affective disorder and how to reset or phase shift the circadian clock with light and melatonin to reduce jet lag and the circadian misalignment caused by night shift work. She has published more than 100 papers in these areas. Her work has been supported by several federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) over the last 30+ years.  

Honors and Activities

Advisor to FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee (PCNS) to consider FDA approval for tasimelteon for the treatment of non-24-hour disorder in the totally blind, November 14, 2013. 

Excellence in Applied Circadian Rhythm Research Award from the National Sleep Foundation, Presented March 2, 2012 in Washington, D.C.

The Science of Jet Lag and its Management, 1 hour briefing before the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus in Washington DC, Sept, 2010.

Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/browse/collection/43700490/?sort=date&direction=descending

Grants

Principal investigator

1984 - 1986     
Human Circadian Rhythms During a Modified Sleep-Wake Schedule
Rush University Committee on Research; $14,252.

1986 - 1989    
Applications of Non-24-Hour Sleep-Wake Schedules
NIH, NINDS, R23 NS23421, Total Cost = $115,377.

1989 - 1999    
Shifting Human Circadian Rhythms with Bright Light
NIH, NINDS, R01 NS23421, Total Cost = $1,853,830.

1987 - 1997    
Mechanisms of Antidepressant Effects of Bright Light (bright light treatment of winter depression)
NIH, NIMH, R01 MH42768, Total Cost = $1,668,920.

1995 - 1996    
Shifting Human Circadian Rhythms with Exogenous Melatonin
Rush University Committee on Research; $9,580.

1997 - 2001    
Melatonin, Human Circadian Rhythms and Sleep
NIH, NINDS, R01 NS35695, Total Cost = $986,840.

1999 - 2008    
Practical Circadian Interventions for Night Shift Work
CDC, NIOSH, R01 OH003954, Total Cost = $2,678,647.

2000 - 2005    
Reducing Jet-Lag with Practical Circadian Treatments
NIH, NINR, R01 NR07677, Total Cost = $1,430,000.

2003 - 2007    
Effects of Short and Long Nights on the Circadian Clock
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL072408, Total Cost = $1,436,113.

2006 - 2011    
Blue Light and Melatonin for Treatment of Circadian Rhythm Disorders and Jet Lag
NIH, NINR, R01 NR007677, Total Cost = $1,626,372.

2007 - 2011    
Phase Response Curves for Home Remedies to Treat Circadian Misalignment
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL086934, Total Cost = $1,480,000.

2009 - 2011    
Phase Response Curves for Home Remedies to Treat Circadian Misalignment
ARRA Supplements, NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL086934, Total Cost = $134,547.

2012 - 2017    
Racial Differences in Human Circadian Rhythms
NIH, NINR, R01 NR007677, Total Cost = $2,705,706.

Co-investigator

2008 - 2013    
Sleep Length and Circadian Regulation in Humans
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL083971, Total Cost = $1,850,000. 
Helen Burgess, P.I.

2011 - 2014    
Circadian Phase Assessments at Home: Validity and Normative Data
NIH, NCCAM, R01 HL105385, Total Cost = $1,139,850. 
Helen Burgess, P.I.

2012 - 2017    
Adolescent Sleep Delay: Circadian Regulation and Phase Shifting with Light
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL105395, Total Cost = $2,059,437. 
Stephanie Crowley, P.I.

2014 - 2019    
Teen School-Night Sleep Extension: An Intervention Targeting the Circadian System
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL112756, Total Cost = $3,256,954.
Stephanie Crowley, P.I.

2020 - 2025
Adolescent Circadian Misalignment: Mechanistic Studies of Sleep and Light
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL146772, Total Cost = $2,643,255.
Stephanie Crowley, P.I.

2020 - 2025
Adolescent Circadian Phase Shifts: Novel Time-of-Day Targets for Bright Light
NIH, NHLBI, R01 HL151512, Total Cost = $2,524,779.
Stephanie Crowley, P.I.