Christine So

Biography

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Classes Taught

• PSYCH 530: Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues

Research Interests

• Mechanisms of trauma-related sleep disturbances
• Sleep disturbances as a risk factor for other health-related problems
• Neurobiology of sleep
• Sleep health disparities

Research in the Laboratory for Understanding Nocturnal behaviors and Affect (LUNA) broadly centers on how disrupted sleep acts as both precipitating and exacerbating factors of psychopathology, particularly in the context of trauma and stress. Currently, my line of research is focused on characterizing cognitive and affective processes underlying nightmares using multimodal methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, polysomnography, actigraphy, computerized tasks). Other lines of research to be pursued include use of ambulatory technology to identify sleep biomarkers of Alzheimer’s risk, environmental influences on sleep health disparities, and personalized behavioral sleep medicine interventions.

Selected Publications

• So, C.J., LaVoy, E.C.P., Harmouch, S., & Alfano, C.A. (2023). Objective and subjective sleep patterns and biomarkers of stress among women with a history of sexual abuse in childhood. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001600
• Miller, K.E., So, C.J., Brownlow, J.A., Gehrman, P.R., & Woodward, S.H. (2023). Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with sleep disturbance in a sample of trauma-exposed Veterans. Sleep Health, 9(5), 634-637.
• So, C.J., Palmer, C.A., Gonzalez, R.D., Bower, J.L., Lau, S., & Alfano, C.A. (2021). Which objective sleep elements predict children’s perceptions of good sleep quality? A preliminary investigation based on polysomnography and actigraphy. Sleep Health, 7(1), 65-71.
• LaVoy, E.C., Palmer, C.A., So, C.J., & Alfano, C.A. (2020). Bidirectional relationships between sleep and biomarkers of stress and immunity in youth. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 158, 331-339.
• Doty, T.J., So, C.J., Bergman, E.M., Trach, S.K., Ratcliffe, R.H., Yarnell, A.M., Capaldi, V.F., Moon, J.E., Balkin, T.J., & Quartana, P.J. (2017). Limited efficacy of caffeine and recovery costs during and following 5 days of chronic sleep restriction. Sleep, 40(12), zsx171.