MEET AN SBSM FOUNDERS - MICHAEL PERLIS, PhD

Dr Perlis was one of the five organizing and founding members of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and served as the SBSM’s first president (2010-2011). He has been in sleep research and sleep medicine since 1984 and his academic parentage includes: Wallace Mendelson MD (Post Bac); Richard Bootzin PhD (Graduate School); Mary Carskadon PhD & Donn Posner PhD (Internship); Daniel Buysse MD, Michael Thase MD, and Donna Giles PhD (Post-Doctoral Fellowship); and Donna Giles (Jr. Faculty Years).  

Dr Perlis' research interests include seven topic areas:

  1. behavior, cognitive, and physiologic factors in acute and chronic insomnia;
  2. the relative efficacy of behavioral and pharmacologic treatments for insomnia;
  3. the potential of behavioral pharmacotherapeutics;
  4. insomnia as risk factor for new onset and recurrent depression and the anti-depressant effects of CBT-I;
  5. cortical arousal and conditioned CNS activation as a primary perpetuator of chronic insomnia;
  6. sensory and information processing and long term memory formation as key features of Insomnia Disorder and insomnia as a hybrid state between wake and sleep; and
  7. sleep homeostasis effects on the frequency and severity of insomnia (and the patterning of insomnia over time). 

He has contributed to the editorial boards of Sleep, the Journal of Sleep Research, the journal of Sleep Medicine Research, the journal of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, and the journal of Health Psychology, has served as a member, or chair, of several committees and task forces of the Sleep Research Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and assistant chair for the training program of the SRS for five years.

Where would you like to see the field in 10 years?

Things I would like see completed: 

  • Create one or more board/certification exams for which PhDs, MDs, NPs, PAs, MSWs, OTs, and other MLPs are eligible
  • Establish SBSM sponsored courses that span the breadth of Behavioral Sleep Medicine (esp. for BSM TXs for OSA, CRDs, and Ped Sleep DXs)
  • Establish a CE credentialing body to support (vet and accredit) non-SBSM courses and workshops
  • Establish masters level (designated expert status) membership for qualifying clinicians, educators, and scientists
  • Enhance the SBSM’s relationship with ABCT, SBM, AASM, and the SRS
  • Reach out and develop relationships with the national societies that represent NPs, PAs, MSWs, OTs, and other MLPs
  • Reinstitute an annual SBSM meeting
  • Create an archive (real and virtual) for materials of relevance to the history, politics, science, and practice of BSM
  • Consider a revision (or re-write) of the society’s by-laws to be more commensurate with the needs of a young society

Who goes on your BSM Mount Rushmore?

I can’t imagine that my candidates are much different from those that most people would suggest. The founding fathers for both insomnia research and CBT-I are clearly Richard Bootzin and Art Spielman. The most seminal thinker and doer since has been Charles Morin. Other critical “players” include: Peter Hauri, Jack Edinger, Kenny Lichstein, Colin Espie, and Wally Mendelson. All but one of these people are clearly on the “Who’s Who” list.  Dr. Mendelson is one of the only insomnia researchers whose career spanned from bench to bedside. More, his ideas about the “cognitive” aspect of insomnia presaged (and predated) all those that now view chronic insomnia as a behaviorally induced neurobiological disorder (i.e., as an altered or hybrid state). His work in this area are “must reads” for all of us.

What is your advice to early career individuals, or those re-specializing into behavioral sleep medicine?

Seek out supervision early on and work as collaboratively as possible for the whole of your careers.  What is the next step that you plan on taking either in your research program or clinical practice?Evaluate how behavioral principles (conditioning and reinforcement) can be used to modify how medical maintenance therapy is conducted (behavioral pharmacotherapeutics).  What is your favorite sleep resource that you would like others to be made aware of?Two words: Donn Posner. All kidding aside, Dr. Posner is our single best resource for clinical mentorship and vision for what the next generation of training and therapy may look like.

Is there anything else you would like to let members know about you?

Not so much about me but about society membership. While any professional society should offer its membership much (credentialing, courses, recognition of individual achievement, etc.), it is equally important that members serve the society. I would strongly recommend that our members dedicate some of their time and mind to the furtherance of our field by volunteering to work for the SBSM (sit on or chair committees, design courses, provide lectures, etc.).