Robert Leroy Sack (born March 14, 1942) is an American physician and researcher specializing in

sleep medicine Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge of, and answered many questions a ...

. He is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Sleep Disorders Medicine. On the faculty of the

Oregon Health & Science University Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public university, public research university, research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded ...

since 1977, he is the medical director of its Clinical Sleep Disorders Medicine Program which he developed parallel with his research on

circadian rhythm A circadian rhythm (), or circadian cycle, is a natural oscillation that repeats roughly every 24 hours. Circadian rhythms can refer to any process that originates within an organism (i.e., Endogeny (biology), endogenous) and responds to the env ...

s. For many years, Sack, together with Alfred J. Lewy, has conducted research on sleep, light therapy and

melatonin Melatonin, an indoleamine, is a natural compound produced by various organisms, including bacteria and eukaryotes. Its discovery in 1958 by Aaron B. Lerner and colleagues stemmed from the isolation of a substance from the pineal gland of cow ...

. Their work resulted in a U.S. patent in 2002. Dr. Sack is, as of February 2010, listed as author of 71

PubMed PubMed is an openly accessible, free database which includes primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute ...

articles, of which 17 are reviews. He has authored chapters in books, for example "Therapy of Circadian Sleep Disorders" in ''Sleep Medicine Essentials.'' His discovery of the power of the hormone melatonin to entrain people with

circadian rhythm sleep disorder Circadian rhythm sleep disorders (CRSD), also known as circadian rhythm sleep–wake disorders (CRSWD), are a family of sleep disorders that affect the timing of sleep. CRSDs cause a persistent pattern of sleep/wake disturbances that arise eit ...

s has benefited many people, both blind and sighted, earning him credit in a ''New England Journal of Medicine'' editorial. Sack is the author of the two-part

American Academy of Sleep Medicine The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) is a United States professional society for the medical subspecialty of sleep medicine which includes disorders of circadian rhythms. It was established in 1975. The organization's functions includ ...

review on circadian rhythm sleep disorders. He was the brother of

Bradley Sack Richard Bradley Sack (October 25, 1935 – April 24, 2017) was an American physician and researcher noted for his contributions to the treatment of cholera. Early years Sack was born in Le Sueur, Minnesota to Wilma Mary (Hyink) and Rev. Nobel V. ...

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

References

1942 births Oregon Health & Science University faculty Living people American neurologists Sleep researchers {{US-physician-stub