Restful Nights for Focused Days: New Insights into the Role of Sleep Health in ADHD

Dr. Jessica Lunsford-Avery is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. She received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Virginia and earned her Master's and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Lunsford-Avery completed her clinical internship at Duke University. Since 2014, she has served as a core faculty member of the Duke ADHD Program, where she engages in research, education, and clinical services. Dr. Lunsford-Avery has served as the Associate Director for Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences since 2025, and on the internal advisory board for the Duke Center for Girls and Women with ADHD since its inception in 2021. Dr. Lunsford-Avery has published more than 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. Over the past decade, her research program has been continuously funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Further research support has been provided by the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences and the Duke Children's Health Discovery Initiative. Dr. Lunsford-Avery currently serves as PI on multiple studies investigating sleep and psychiatric health in youth, with a specific focus on children with ADHD. She is also a member of the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders, Society for Behavioral Sleep Medicine, and Sleep Research Society, for which she has serves as Vice Chair of. She serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals and has served as a guest editor for Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, Psychiatric Clinics, Scientific Reports, and Current Sleep Medicine Reports. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR's 1A, NPR's Morning Edition, The Matt Walker Podcast, and "Talking Sleep," the official podcast of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Dr. Lunsford-Avery is a licensed clinical psychologist and maintains a practice through the Duke ADHD Program's outpatient clinic. Her research interests are in the areas of sleep disturbances and risk for, onset, and progression of behavioral disorders, particularly ADHD; associations between sleep and cognitive, academic, and social performance; prevention and treatment of sleep problems and ADHD; and leveraging mobile and digital health technologies to increase access to best-practice psychiatric care.