This month’s presenter is Professor Sara Mednick from the Department of Cognitive Sciences here at UC Irvine. Professor Mednick is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine and author of The Hidden Power of the Downstate (Hachette Go!, pub date: April, 2022) and Take a Nap! Change Your Life. (Workman). She is passionate about understanding how the brain works through her research into sleep and the autonomic nervous system. Dr. Mednick’s seven-bedroom sleep lab works literally around-the-clock to discover methods for boosting cognition by napping, stimulating the brain with electricity, sound and light, and pharmacology. Her lab also investigates how the menstrual cycle and aging affect the brain. Her science has been continuously federally funded (National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense Office of Naval Research, DARPA).