Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine and Director of the Sleep and Cognition (SaC) Lab
Karen Dobkins, Ph.D.
Professor of psychology and neuroscience at University of California, San Diego and the director of the Human Experience and Awareness Lab (HeaLab)
The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of The Power of the Downstate from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Mednick and Dobkins that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
We’d all like to bring more energy, sharper thinking, and balanced moods to our days. In her fascinating, science-based new book, The Power of the Downstate: Recharge Your Life Using Your Body’s Own Restorative Systems, Sara Mednick, Ph.D. draws on the latest research to show how we can access the most replenishing and repairing aspects of sleep through activities and moments that happen in our mornings, afternoons, and evenings by diving into what Prof. Mednick calls “downstates.” While most of us find our lives full of “upstate” moments that rev up our engines, keeping us in the fight-or-flight stress response for too long, she argues that it’s critical for our health, well-being, and cognitive longevity that we learn how to bring ourselves back to the downstate.
A world-renowned scientist, Prof. Mednick, professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine, is the director of the Sleep and Cognition (SaC) Lab, which investigates the mind and body mechanisms that support performance improvement. She draws on her original findings—and those of others in many fields of medicine—to create a comprehensive picture of the upstate/downstate rhythms that orchestrate all our bodies’ vital systems, along with a novel theory that aging is caused by spending less and less time in downstate activities.
Prof. Mednick will be in conversation with Karen Dobkins, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego and the director of the Human Experience and Awareness Lab (HeaLab). Prof. Dobkins’s research focuses on mindfulness, compassion, embodiment, and human connection, all with the goal of improving well-being in an era when depression and anxiety run rampant.
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on our website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- Bennett Day School
- Chiaravalle Montessori School
- Christ Church Winnetka
- Compass Health Center
- Countryside Day School
- Evanston Township High School D202
- Family Service Center
- Family Service of Glencoe
- Francis W. Parker School
- Fusion Academy
- Kenilworth D38
- Lake Bluff D65
- Lake Forest Academy
- Lake Forest D67
- Lake Michigan Association of Independent Schools
- Loyola Academy
- Mindful Psychology Associates PC
- New Trier Parents’ Association
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Roycemore School
- Sacred Heart Schools
- Science & Arts Academy
- Spirit of 67
- Stevenson High School D125
- The Alliance for Early Childhood
- The Avery Coonley School
- The Family Institute at Northwestern University
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
Upcoming Events
The Pursuit of Liberty: How Hamilton vs. Jefferson Ignited the Lasting Battle Over Power in America
Jeffrey Rosen
President and CEO of the National Constitution Center and Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School
David Blight, Ph.D.
Sterling Professor of History and African American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, Yale University
ON ZOOM
The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains
Pria Anand, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine
Anupam B. Jena, MD, Ph.D.
Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and host of the "Freakonomics, MD" podcast
ON ZOOM
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Ph.D.
Neuroscientist, writer, and founder of Ness Labs
Susan Dominus
Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer for The New York Times Magazine
ON ZOOM
