Dr. Wendy M. Troxel

Biography

Wendy M. Troxel, Ph.D., is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corp. and is an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah. Her research focuses on the interface between sleep, the social environment, health, and the implications for public policy. Troxel is the leading authority on sleep in the context of close relationships and is the author of “Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep.”

She has served as principal investigator of multiple research studies funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and private foundations. Troxel’s TEDx talk on sleep in adolescents has received more than 2.4 million views and is at the forefront of policy discussions on the impact of early school start times on adolescent sleep. She is an active clinical psychologist focusing on behavioral (nonpharmacologic) treatments for sleep disorders.

Troxel has served in leadership roles in several professional sleep societies, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Sleep Research Society. She also is an associate editor for the journals Sleep Health and Behavioral Sleep Medicine and served on the National Institutes of Health Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board.