Editing Robert Stickgold

{{Short description|American sleep researcher}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Dr. Robert A. Stickgold
| image              = STICKGOLD.JPG
| birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1945|10|24}}
| birth_place        = Chicago, USA
| caption            = Robert Stickgold in 2024
| occupation         = Professor of Psychiatry
| employer           = Harvard Medical School (Division of Sleep Medicine)
}}

'''Robert Stickgold''' is a professor of [[psychiatry]] at the [[Harvard Medical School]] and the [[Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center]]. A [[sleep]] researcher, his work focuses on the relationship between [[sleep and learning]]. Stickgold's articles in the popular press are intended to illustrate the dangers of [[sleep deprivation]].

Stickgold was born in [[Chicago]]. He graduated from [[Harvard University]] before attending the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]], where he received his doctorate in biochemistry.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.pbs.org/safarchive/3_ask/archive/bio/73_rstickgold_bio.html| title = PBS Scientific American Frontiers Bio| website = [[PBS]]}}</ref> He worked with the sleep researcher [[Allan Hobson|J. Allan Hobson]] for many years and has been known to quote Hobson's quip: "The only known function of sleep is to cure sleepiness".<ref>{{cite magazine|last1=Konnikova|first1=Maria|title=The Work We Do While We Sleep|author-link1=Maria Konnikova |url=http://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/why-we-sleep|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=17 July 2015|date=8 July 2015|quote=The Harvard sleep researcher Robert Stickgold has recalled his former collaborator [[J. Allan Hobson]] joking that the only known function of sleep is to cure sleepiness.}}</ref> Stickgold's research has focused on sleep and [[cognition]], [[dream]]ing, and [[Altered state of consciousness|conscious states]]. He has been a proponent of the role of sleep in [[memory consolidation]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Stickgold|first=R|author2=Walker, MP |title=Sleep-dependent memory consolidation and reconsolidation.|journal=Sleep Medicine|date=June 2007|volume=8|issue=4|pages=331–43|doi=10.1016/j.sleep.2007.03.011|pmid=17470412|pmc=2680680}}</ref> Additional research has focused on dreaming. In one experiment, participants played the computer game [[Tetris]] for three days and reported dreaming about falling geometric shapes—a phenomenon now known as the [[Tetris effect]]. Even patients with [[anterograde amnesia]], who did not remember playing the game, had similar dreams as normal participants.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=tetris-dreams| title = Scientific American, Tetris Dreams}}</ref> Similar results were found in another study utilizing the video game [[Alpine Racer 2]].  Participants reported dreaming about [[Alpine skiing|skiing]].<ref>{{cite news| url = http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/05/23/analyze_this/| title = The Boston Globe, Analyze This:What sparks our dreams, especially those wacky ones? One man is on the case.| newspaper = Boston.com| last1 = Zook| first1 = Kristal Brent}}</ref>

Stickgold lives in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] and has four children.

Stickgold is also a published science fiction author. In 1973, he had his novelette "Susies Reality" published in the May/June issue of "Worlds of IF Science Fiction" anthology magazine. With Mark Noble, he wrote "Gloryhits" in 1978. In 1981, he published "The California Coven Project".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stickgold |first=Bob |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7458814 |title=The California coven project |date=1981 |publisher=Ballantine Books |isbn=0-345-28677-4 |location=New York |oclc=7458814}}</ref>

==References==
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==External links==
* [http://sleep.med.harvard.edu/people/faculty/220/Robert+Stickgold+PhD Robert Stickgold, Faculty profile, Harvard Medical School]
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/what-are-dreams.html PBS' NOVA episode "What Are Dreams?" Video & Transcript]
* [https://archive.org/details/1973-06_IF/page/n85/mode/2up Internet Archive of "Susies Reality" in IF magazine]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stickgold, Robert}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Sleep researchers]]
[[Category:Oneirologists]]
[[Category:Harvard Medical School faculty]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni]]
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:American psychiatrists]]


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