Sleep, and how it relates to your health, is what ARCS Scholar Alum Noah Milman studies in the Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience program at Oregon Health and Science University.
His research, using rodent species, focuses on the relationship between early life, sleep and social behavior.
“In humans, babies sleep more than anyone else,” Milman says. “There must be a function of why babies are sleeping so much,” he explains, plus the observation that babies who sleep less during a specific developmental window are more likely to have autism, and children with autism are more likely to have sleep problems.
There is an interconnected web among difficulty sleeping, tactile sensitivity and differences in social interactions in autism. It is unclear what comes first, Milman says.
Fascinatingly, rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep), when dreaming occurs, is an endogenous source of stimuli to brain regions involved in touch. This phase of sleep is at a lifetime maximum in the first year of life.
“One hypothesis is that REM sleep is critical to the foundation of many of our adult behaviors,” he explains. Looking at social interactions intrigues him as a scientist, Milman says, “because it is how we connect with others, but we all do it slightly differently.”
In college he was intrigued by the connection between sleep and dementia, another case of “driver” or “symptom.” In humans it can be difficult to parse that relationship out. His advisor Dr. Miranda Lim’s research focuses on sleep throughout the life span, using both human and rodent models. “Being a practicing neurologist who encourages cross-species investigations, she has this unique perspective on exploring the multiple functions of sleep,” Milman says.
Specifically, Milman’s research uses rodents to explore connections between sleep and the development of species-typical interaction, akin to human interactions like hugging a loved one, or high-fiving a friend.
“Social touch,” as scientists call it, is a primary means by which intentional physical contact between two individuals that can give rise to changes in the disposition and subjective state of one or both individuals, and can ultimately influence their behavior. (Suvilehto, et. al, 2015)
How we sleep early in life may foreshadow social touch later in life, according to Milman.
His work focuses on the exact cell type believed to be responsible for responding to sensory stimuli, including social interactions. He aims to map how this cell develops typically, as well as without adequate sleep early in life.
In his 4th year of his PhD program, Milman recently received a National Institute of Mental Health Fellowship, giving him three more years of funding. The funding has already been received.
Milman hopes to wrap up his dissertation work in the next 18 months.
He credits Dr. Lim and his lab for teaching him what it means to prioritize as a scientist, the grant writing process including the more mundane forms that lead to receiving grant dollars, budgeting at the team and staff level, – “exposing me to what it’s like to run a lab,” Milman says.
Milman has been busy outside of the lab, teaching short term classes at Portland State University, University of Portland and Lewis & Clark College. He’s also been lucky to attend several conferences to showcase their research and learn from experts.
His upcoming calendar includes:
- An upcoming presentation at the Pacific Northwest Sleep and Circadian Network https://www.pnwsleep.com
- A talk in Tsukuba, Japan at the International Symposium on the Social Brain
- Attendance in Seattle at the SLEEP conference, which offers “unparalleled opportunities for knowledge sharing, networking, and discovering groundbreaking advances in sleep medicine.”
- Attending the 2025 Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, a premier global neuroscience event. https://www.sfn.org
Milman’s bottom line advice on sleep: “A straightforward answer regarding the importance of sleep is regularity.”
Milman thanks his ARCS Oregon award donors Barbara and Philip Silver.
