Sonia Ancoli-Israel, PhD, is a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, director of the Sleep Disorders Clinic at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, and co-director of the Education Unit of the VA VISN-22 Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). Ancoli-Israel is one of the nation's predominant experts in the fields of sleeping disorders and sleep research in aging and has an international reputation in sleep disorders.
Ancoli-Israel received her bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, a master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach, and a PhD in psychology from the University of California, San Francisco.
Her interests include the longitudinal effect of sleep disorders on aging, the effect of circadian rhythms on sleep, the use of light therapy to improve sleep and behavior in nursing home populations, and the relationship between circadian rhythms and cancer. She is immediate past-president of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms and has been on the Executive Board of the Sleep Research Society and the Executive Board of the National Sleep Foundation.
She has been a guest on television and radio programs including NPR's Morning Edition and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Ancoli-Israel is published regularly in medical and psychiatric journals and has written a book, All I Want Is a Good Night's Sleep.