I believe that interventions that actively promote good sleep quality and look for sleep disorders can be effective in shaping dementia.
Current Work
Clinical Neurophysiologist and a Sleep Medicine expert.
Personal Hero
Disabled people
Words of Strength
Yes, we can
Vision
In a society with an increasing aging population, actions to strengthen and maintain healthy habits are highly important. Interventions that actively promote good sleep quality and look for sleep disorders can be effective in shaping dementia.
Strategy
Sandra is focused in the study of sleep in patients with neurodegenerative processes such as Alzheimer’s disease, and in people with Down syndrome, assessing the relationship between sleep disturbances and the risk of cognitive decline.
Impact
The multidisciplinary nature of the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program provides innovative skills to launch an educational sleep-aging program. Raising awareness of sleep disorders, especially in vulnerable populations, will help to reduce health inequity and improve quality of life.
Motivation
Up to 15% of the risk associated to with dementia development could have been prevented by early treatment of sleep disturbances. However the importance of sleep for brain health is often neglected.
Sandra completed the Neurophysiology residency training at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (Barcelona, Spain) in 2001 and performed a Sleep Medicine Fellowship at the University of Stanford, Montpellier and Strasbourg. She completed her PhD in Sleep Neuropharmacology in 2012. Somnologist accredited by European Sleep Research, Spanish and French Sleep Societies. She combines research and clinical activities in the Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau with the Memory Unit and Alzheimer-Down Unit of the same hospital, in Barcelona. She also has academic activity as Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona.
Currently Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI in several national (PI 20/00836, Fundación Tatiana 2020, Separ 738) and international (JLF 1801, MES-CoBraD, Horizon 2020, R21AG049348) competitive projects.