Azizi Seixas is a researcher, PhD, and devoted assistant professor at the NYU School of Medicine. Seixas works in the Department of Population Health and the Center for Healthful Behavior Change. In this podcast Seixas will provide an interesting overview of sleep, its amazing health benefits, and methods to get better sleep for those who are sleep deprived.

Dr. Seixas earned an MA from Fordham University and studied clinical psychology. He has an MS in ​clinical psychology from The University of Dallas, and earned his BA​ ​in philosophy and premed studies from the renowned College of the Holy Cross. Dr. Seixas was awarded a prestigious National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) career award and was tasked to research sleep: to assess whether low quality or insufficient sleep and/or obesity could be a factor in cardiovascular disease risk disparity between black and white populations.

Dr. Seixas theorizes that physical activity, diet, stress management, and sleep are the four keys to better health. Dr. Seixas is keenly interested in the possible connections between sleep and cardiovascular disease, metabolic health conditions, and daily functioning, etc.

Over the years, Dr. Seixas has been particularly focused on the various multilevel determinants of sleep and cardiovascular disease disparities, as well as behavior modification interventions, and other areas and treatments related to sleep. Dr. Seixas discusses how they utilize machine learning analytical tools to improve health. Dr. Seixas outlines the many sociocultural and environmental determinants of select chronic diseases, and behaviors that often prevent or hinder health access to struggling communities that have seen a rise in cardiovascular issues in greater percentages than other communities.

Dr. Seixas is concerned about community care; he talks about some of the impediments to comprehensive care that may delay proper treatment of sleep disorders in certain minority populations. Dr. Seixas’s interest in improving community health has motivated him to literally take it directly to the community. He discusses how he and his team will go to community gathering places such as the neighborhood barbershop or salon to talk to people in a warm environment that they are comfortable in, in order to collect valuable information on the kind of sleep they are getting. Often Dr. Seixas will offer home-based sleep studies to individuals who prefer to be in their home and not a clinical setting. Whatever works he is happy with, as his true desire is to help people with their sleep issues and ultimately improve their health. Dr. Seixas states that quality sleep can impact our lives for better or worse, so getting good sleep is crucial. From our overall mood to bodily functioning, libido, mental clarity, and many health issues, getting good sleep is critically important.

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