SLEEP Empowers Lab
The SLEEP Empowers Lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital studies how sleep affects children’s health, learning, behavior and daily functioning. The lab examines the factors that influence sleep across families and communities and develops tools that support early recognition of sleep needs. This work helps inform programs and partnerships that promote health sleep for all children, with focused support for communities experiencing the greatest barriers.
The lab serves as the research and evaluation partner for SLEEP Friendly Cities, providing evidence, data insights and learning support that guide the initiative’s community and system-level strategies.
Our Mission
The SLEEP Empowers Lab advances sleep health through:
- Research on sleep patterns, daily functioning and child development.
- Development of tools that support early identification of sleep needs.
- Evaluation of community and clinical strategies that promote healthy sleep.
- Collaboration with families, clinicians and community partners.
- Training the next generation of sleep health researchers.
Inside SLEEP Empowers Lab
Areas of Focus
- Sleep and Daily Functioning: Studies explore how sleep influences learning, behavior, emotional wellbeing and physical health across childhood adolescence.
- Sleep Environments and Community Conditions: Research examines how home, school and neighborhood environments shape sleep and identifies opportunities to support healthier sleep across communities.
- Early Identification of Sleep Needs: The lab develops and tests tools that help families and providers recognize sleep concerns earlier and connect children to appropriate support.
- Population and System-Level Approaches: Projects evaluate strategies that can be used across clinics, schools and community settings to promote healthy sleep at scale.
- Support for SLEEP Friendly Cities: The lab provides research, evaluation and data insights that guide the SLEEP Friendly Cities initiative and help ensure that programs are effective, accessible and responsive to families.
Featured Publications
- Davenport MA, Romero ME, Lewis CD, Lawson T, Ferguson B, Stichter J, Kahng S. An Initial Development and Evaluation of a Culturally Responsive Police Interactions Training for Black Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord. 2023 Apr; 53: 1375-1390.
- Chavez LJ, Tyson DP, Davenport MA, Kelleher KJ, Chisolm DJ. Social Needs as a Risk Factor for Positive Postpartum Depression Screens in Pediatric Primary Care. Acad Pediatr. 2023 Mar 22;
- Kelleher K, Davenport MA. Social Interventions and Health Care Utilization for Child Asthma-What's in a Name?JAMA Pediatr. 2022 Feb 1; 176: e215100.
- Davenport MA, Berry JR, Mazurek MO, McCrae CS. Using Telehealth to Deliver Family-Based Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia in a School-Aged Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Cogn Psychother. 2021 Nov 1; 35: 235-254.
- Davenport MA, Landor AM, Zeiders KH, Sarsar ED, Flores M. Within-person associations between racial microaggressions and sleep among African American and Latinx young adults. J Sleep Res. 2021 Aug; 30: e13226.
Join Our Team
The SLEEP Empowers Lab offers training experiences for individuals interested in how sleep affects children’s health and how communities can better support healthy sleep across daily life.
Featured Research Projects
SLEEP Friendly Cities is a multilevel approach to population sleep health prevention and promotion. The SLEEP Friendly Cities framework aims to deploy a variety of strategic arms, interventions and initiatives across three focus areas:
- Place-Based Investments in Sleep Health: Investments in sleep desert communities addressing upstream social and environmental drivers of family sleep health, key risk factors and gaps for medically underserved populations.
- Health System Strengthening for Systemwide Sleep Management: Initiatives focused on evidence-based and systemwide practices essential to bridging population sleep prevention, early detection and access to sleep health care services.
- Impact Evaluation and Population Sleep Innovations: Program evaluation based on data and research best practices to inform all aspects of the initiative’s community needs and asset assessment, implementation, scaling and sustainability.
The SLEEP Empowers Lab contributes to the initiative by:
- Conducting Research that informs community sleep resources.
- Evaluating sleep education and engagement strategies.
- Supporting development of tools that help families build healthy sleep routines.
- Providing data insights that help partners understand local sleep needs.
- Collaborating with community organizations to ensure resources are practical and relevant.
- This partnership helps ensure that SLEEP Friendly Cities is grounded in evidence and aligned with the needs of children and families across Franklin County.
NIH K01-funded population health study that uses machine learning approaches to support the equitable identification of pediatric sleep deficiency in the electronic health care records.
A community-based observational study that utilizes to assess daily association between physiological arousal, sleep disturbance, and racism-related stressors in adolescents across 14 days.
Trainee Opportunities
Students and early-career professionals play an important role in advancing sleep health research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The SLEEP Empowers Lab offers training experiences for individuals interested in how sleep affects children’s health and how communities can better support healthy sleep across daily life.
Trainees contribute to projects that examine sleep patterns, daily functioning and the environments that shape sleep across childhood and adolescence. Opportunities are designed to support skill development in research methods, community partnership and program evaluation. Training experiences are structured to benefit all learners while providing additional exposure to communities where sleep barriers are more common.
What Trainees Gain
Trainees receive hands-on experience in:
- Collecting and analyzing data related to child and adolescent sleep
- Supporting community-engaged research activities
- Contributing to the development of sleep education materials
- Participating in program evaluation and quality improvement efforts
- Working alongside multidisciplinary teams across Nationwide Children’s Hospital
These experiences help prepare trainees for careers in pediatrics, psychology, public health, population health, education, social sciences, engineering, communications and other fields connected to child and community wellbeing.
Who Should Apply
The lab welcomes undergraduate and graduate students from a wide range of fields who are interested in child health, community wellbeing or population-level approaches to improving sleep. Students studying health sciences, social sciences, education, public policy, data science, engineering, communications, business or related areas are encouraged to apply. Applicants should be motivated to learn, comfortable working in community settings and interested in contributing to research that supports children and families across Franklin County.
How Trainees Support SLEEP Friendly Cities
Trainees may assist with activities that help strengthen sleep health across Franklin County, including:
- Supporting community engagement events
- Helping develop or refine sleep education materials
- Assisting with data collection and analysis
- Participating in evaluation activities that inform community programs
These contributions help ensure that sleep resources are accessible, practical and responsive to the needs of families.
How to Apply
Interested applicants may submit:
- A résumé or CV
- A brief statement describing interests and goals
- Academic program and anticipated availability
Materials can be sent to SleepEmpowersLab@NationwideChildrens.org
