Dr. Megan Petrov is our sleep expert here on the Snuggle Bug Sleep Study and is an assistant professor in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. Her research interests include sleep, sleep disorders, health disparities, behavioral sleep medicine, health outcomes and services research, mental health, treatment adherence, pain, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. She holds her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Alabama. Megan has been married for 8 years to Vesco Petrov and they have two beautiful children, Milena who is 5 years old and Maksis, 3 years old. And when I say beautiful, I am trying to encourage her to sell their portraits as a side hustle. Having little time for side jobs, she is a busy mom balancing motherhood and an outstanding professional career who enjoys hiking, bouldering and singing. She’s a fireball and catching up with her requires good listening skills and running shoes if you’re on the move. Enjoy getting to know Dr. Megan Petrov, our sleep scientist, who is studying you and your baby’s sleep/wake patterns for the next few years in 20 Questions. 1. How did you end up studying moms and babies? “I had my own kids and rapidly realized that I wanted my science to address the concerns and issues about sleep commonly experienced by moms and babies. The physiology of how we sleep develops early on and may predict how well we develop into adulthood cognitively, emotionally, behaviorally, socially, physically, etc. It became more and more apparent over time that if I wanted to make a true impact on public sleep health, that starting early in life would be a strong bet.” 2. Favorite movie: “Forrest Gump.” 3. Last study that blew your mind: “Sleep Loss Can Cause Death through Accumulation of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Gut. Basically, this lab group wanted to understand why sleep deprivation can lead to death. They sleep deprived a bunch of flies and mice and discovered that reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated in the gut. ROS are instigators of organ damage and death through oxidative stress. However, the researchers found out they could save the flies from death by giving them oral antioxidant compounds and other enzymes that cleared the ROS while still sleep depriving them. The flies lived a normal lifespan with little to no sleep.” 4. Favorite place at ASU: “ASU Gammage because of my love for musical theater. It was actually the first ASU building I entered.” 5. What made you choose research? “Why not? What else is there? Isn't being curious about how the world works and then actually trying to figure out the answers the essence of being human?” 6. Funniest thing your kids do: “Try to break dance, tell stories of commercial-grade construction vehicles crashing into buildings....and they were there to witness it....., pretend to be heavy metal singers and pretend to "cook" each other.” 7. What has surprised you as a mom? “That I had a maternal instinct at all. As an aspiring mom I was often worried that I wouldn't have a natural nurturing, and vigilant demeanor. What was most shocking is not only that I had this part of me, but how quickly it came on after I gave birth to my first child.” 8. A TEDTalk you could give on the fly: “Why aliens (if they exist) should be afraid of us instead of the other way around.” 9. Maroon or Gold? “Gold.” 10. As a sleep expert, what advice would you give me? “One piece of advice that we hear a lot about but don’t seem to understand on a public health level is why it is so good for you to have a consistent sleep/wake schedule. Intuitively, we understand that if we generally go to bed and get up at the same time each day that we tune our bodies to start naturally doing this for us. The days we don’t keep to our regular schedule we tend to feel it cognitively, emotionally, physically etc. Going to a deeper level, excessive sleep/wake schedule variability (similar to chronic jet lag) can lead to mistiming of multiple physiologic functions within multiple organ systems in our bodies. All of which can currently make us feel not our best, and down the road can lead to poor health.”
15. Name a proud moment in your professional life: “Getting to do this study!” 16. What drives you consistently? “I believe to make the world a better, nicer, more civil and intelligent place, all must have consistent, good quality sleep.” 17. What is one thing you would like to do better? “I wish I were better at enjoying multitasking.” 18. Best thing about life in quarantine? “Less commuting, but in a way I miss that too. That was usually a time for phone calls and podcasts.” 19. Nerdiest thing you do: “My daily work life.” 20. Best advice you’ve ever been given: “Meditate, journal, or sleep on your problems.”
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AuthorsThe Snuggle Bug / Acurrucadito Team is so passionate about moms and babies. There is so much we want to share with you and baby. Each entry is carefully curated to keep you up to date on what we are doing. We also share fun ideas with you to make motherhood the joy it is meant to be! Archives
July 2021
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