Michael Scullin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience | Baylor University
Waco, TX, UNITED STATES
Professor Scullin’s research investigates how sleep physiology impacts memory, education, health, and aging.
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Biography
Dr. Scullin completed his doctorate in the Behavior, Brain, and Cognition program at Washington University in St. Louis and then a post-doctoral fellowship in the Neurology and Sleep Medicine program at Emory University School of Medicine. He is involved in service committees for the Sleep Research Society and the American Psychological Association and he co-founded the APA journal Translational Issues in Psychological Science.
Dr. Scullin’s research investigates how sleep physiology impacts memory, education, health, and aging. He is further interested in how we use memory to fulfill our daily intentions (a special kind of memory called “prospective" memory) as well as how lifestyle choices including exercise, diet, and medication adherence affect cognitive and neural functioning.
Areas of Expertise (8)
Neuroscience
Sleep Physiology
Cognitive Neuroscience
Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition
Psychology
Sleep's Effect on Aging
Sleep's Effect on Memory
Sleep's Effect on Health
Accomplishments (5)
Rising Star Award, Association for Psychological Science
2017
Brenda A. Milner Award, American Psychological Association
2015
Early Career Development Award, Sleep Research Society Foundation
2015
Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, National Institute on Aging
2012
APA/Psi Chi Edwin B. Newman Graduate Research Award (professional)
Awards for graduate research, applying psychology to education and training. Professor Scullin received this award in 2011.
Education (2)
Washington University, St. Louis: Ph.D. 2011
Furman University: B.S. 2007
Media Appearances (34)
The Einstein Example
Furman Magazine online
2024-06-11
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, is quoted in this article about his Furman undergraduate experience, particularly the influence of Professor Emeritus of Psychology Gil Einstein. Scullin considers himself to be a beneficiary of Einstein’s teaching and said that he works to follow his legacy “to pay forward the grace, the patience and the positivity he has shown me in my career and my life.”
Getting more sleep leads to increased gratitude, resilience and flourishing
EurekAlert online
2024-06-04
A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that healthy sleep has a positive impact on gratitude, resilience and flourishing in adults. Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and principal investigator, noted that experimentally increasing sleep improved these positive attributes, which are at the core of well-being and among the underpinnings of prosocial behaviors.
Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during daylight saving time
American Academy of Sleep Medicine online
2024-03-06
Medical malpractice incidents are more severe during the months of the year when daylight saving time is observed in the U.S., according to a new study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine that examined three decades of malpractice claims. Baylor sleep researcher Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, served as principal investigator.
How To Determine (And Improve) Your Sleep Quality
Sleep Foundation online
2024-02-12
This Sleep Foundation newsletter about improving the quality of sleep cites Baylor sleep expert Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., on his research about the impact of all-nighters on the cognition of college students and his suggestions to improve sleep quality.
Experts reveal why people are randomly waking up at 3 am and share useful solutions
Upworthy online
2024-01-04
Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and director of the Sleep Neuroscience & Cognition Laboratory, shares advice to lessen stress over unfinished tasks that can keep people from getting a good night’s sleep.
Sleepopolis Survey Reveals That a Surprising Number of Americans Are Trying Sleep Aids
Sleepopolis online
2023-12-22
Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor and director of Sleep Neuroscience & Cognition Laboratory, comments on a survey that found 81% of Americans say they have tried a natural sleep aid or supplement to help them fall and/or stay asleep.
5 Myths About Sleep: Common Misconceptions That Need to Be Put to Rest
Prevention online
2023-11-27
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, debunks common myths about sleep in this article. Scullin is quoted about the importance of adequate sleep and awareness of sleep apnea.
Song Stuck in Your Head? What Earworms Reveal About Health
WebMD online
2023-03-31
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, was quoted regarding earworms, a bit of music you can’t shake from your brain.
Baylor sleep expert warns of cost of daylight saving time
Waco Tribune-Herald online
2023-03-10
VIDEO: Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, discusses the negative effect of spring daylight saving change on humans and why it can take up to a week to adjust to the change.
Can Listening to Pop Music Help You Fall Asleep?
Verywell Health online
2023-01-31
Baylor sleep researcher Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, says one of the main reasons music might help someone fall asleep is fairly simple: it can help you relax. However, if you’re experiencing insomnia, Scullin said listening to music shouldn’t necessarily be the first trick you try. Instead, it’s best to give stimulus control practices a shot.
Spotify Sleep Playlists Include Some Surprisingly Upbeat Music
Forbes+ online
2023-01-21
This article about music playlists to help people fall asleep cites a 2021 study by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., who found that musical “earworms” made people wake up at night from having a song stuck in their head. Scullin said, “Almost everyone thought music improves their sleep, but we found those who listened to more music slept worse.”
Air Pollution Can Lead To Poor Sleep: 4 Other Things That Can Cause Sleep Deprivation
The Health Site online
2023-01-07
Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article about reasons people have trouble getting a good night's sleep. Scullin’s research found that listening to music near bedtime can lead to earworms (a song or tune stuck in your head), which can cause difficulty falling asleep and nighttime awakenings.
What to Do When You Can't Sleep, According to Experts
Newsweek online
2022-01-16
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognitive Laboratory at Baylor, explains that the best thing to do when struggling to sleep is to get out of bed. The article also mentions his recent sleep research that investigated the impact of musical “earworms” on sleep quality.
Why Do I Wake Up At 3 A.M. Worrying? Sleep Experts Explain
Newsweek online
2022-01-04
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Lab, is quoted in this article explaining why the early hours of the morning put our minds into overdrive.
Health Check: New research on the Omicron variant
BBC Radio online
2021-12-22
AUDIO: Many people listen to music for hours every day, and often near bedtime in the hope of a good night’s sleep. But if you can’t get the tune out of your head, could this be counter-productive? In new research, Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, has looked at the rarely studied effect of these so-called earworms.
Reminder Apps on Smartphones May Help in Early Dementia
HealthDay online
2021-11-18
Despite stereotypes about seniors and technology, a study led by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., suggests that older adults in the early stages of dementia can use smartphone apps as memory aids. The research also was covered nationally by CBS Radio News and its affiliates throughout the country, including WINS in New York and WBBM in Chicago.
Device Apps Aid Memory in Older Adults With Impaired Cognition
Health Day online
2021-11-24
A study led by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted for its findings that older adults with cognitive disorders can improve daily prospective memory functioning when they learn to use digital voice recorder or smartphone memory aids to manage everyday tasks.
Calling grandma: How a smartphone can help those with memory loss stay on track
KXXV-TV online
2021-11-23
A study led by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, is featured in this article for its work correlating cell phone use to helping early signs of dementia.
How to Get Great Sleep During Daylight Savings Time
Psychology Today online
2021-11-08
A study by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, Chenlu Gao Paul, post-doc researcher at Harvard Medical School and Paul Fillmore, Ph.D., assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders, is quoted in this article for their findings that listening to catchy music before bed can make you much more likely to experience poor sleep.
Earworms
BYU Radio online
2021-09-16
Many pop songs these days are so catchy they can be torture—stuck in your head on a constant loop. Michael Scullin, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience, has been studying how memorable music affects sleep. He discusses his findings on Top of Mind with Julie Rose.
Fort Worth and Arlington wake up to new ranking among 10 most well-rested U.S. cities
Fort Worth Culture Map online
2021-07-16
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article ranking Arlington and Fort Worth among the 10 big U.S. cities where people get seven or more hours of sleep per day.
Earworms Invading Human Brain When Awake Affects Sleep
The Science Times online
2021-06-16
A new study examining earworms that penetrate the human brain when awake recently specified that their invasion in brains at night could affect one's sleep and staying asleep, as well. According to Baylor neuroscientist Michael Scullin, Ph.D., the brains continue processing music even nothing is playing anymore, including seemingly, while one is asleep. This research also was covered by Sleep Review magazine.
Why Music at Bedtime Might Not Be a Great Idea
HealthDay online
2021-06-14
That music at bedtime that's supposed to help you fall asleep may actually have the opposite effect, new research by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D. It turns out that "earworms," those catchy bits of a composition that can get stuck in a person's head can also interject themselves into a person's dreams, affecting the ability to fall asleep and to sleep well.
Music listening near bedtime disruptive to sleep, Baylor study finds
EurekAlert online
2021-06-10
A new study led by Baylor sleep researcher Michael Scullin, Ph.D., found that the relationship between music listening and sleep with the involuntary musical imagery, or “earworms,” when a song plays in a person’s mind can affect their sleep patterns.
5 best quiet air purifiers of 2021, according to experts
NBC News online
2021-03-17
This article about air purifiers that can be noisy and interrupt sleep mentions a a September 2020 survey from Baylor University sleep researchers doctoral candidate Chenlu Gao and Michael Scullin, Ph.D., which found 25 percent of Americans reported worsened sleep quality given Covid-19-related stress.
How much sleep is too much sleep?
Gizmodo.com online
2021-01-13
This article quotes Michael Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory about health, sleep “debt” and factors that affect sleep, such as aging and narcolepsy.
How Exercise Affects Your Sleep
The Sport Review online
2020-12-16
Studies have shown that high levels of activity during the day is linked to higher quality sleep; however, exercising late at night can have adverse effects on sleep quality. Michael Scullin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology and neuroscience, explains the benefits of staying active during the day, exercising outdoors and avoiding working out late at night.
Today’s lesson: Count your sheep
San Diego Union-Tribune online
2020-06-05
Research on the importance of a good night’s sleep, especially on college students, by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, is included as part of this online lesson for K-12 students to practice writing skills.
The Brain: Listening to this type of music may improve your work performance
Ladders online
2020-05-18
Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor's Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, is quoted in this article about new Baylor research that found that students who listened to classical music as they slept performed much better on a test the next day.
Sleep and COVID-19: Experts Offer 7 Tips for not Feeling so Exhausted
Inverse online
2020-04-26
Michael Scullin, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory at Baylor, is among the sleep experts quoted in this article about how COVID-19 has affected our sleep.
Students Who Listened to Beethoven During Lecture — and Heard the Same Music in Dreamland — Did Better on Test Next Day
Baylor Media and Public Relations online
2020-04-07
College students who listened to classical music during a computer-interactive lecture on microeconomics — and heard the music again that night — did better on a test the next day than did peers who were in the same lecture. Michael K. Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s sleep lab and assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, said that by experimentally priming concepts students learn during lectures in their sleep, they were able to increase performance on integration questions by 18 percent on the test the following day.
3 Psychological Strategies to be More Focused at Work
Inverse online
2020-02-19
This article about three strategies for people to use to boost productivity and achieve goals includes research by Baylor sleep scientist Michael Scullin, Ph.D., which found that taking five minutes before bedtime to write out your to-do list will help calm your mind and help you fall asleep faster.
How To Stop Thinking About Work At 3 AM
TaxProf Blog online
2020-02-05
This blog cites research by Michael Scullin, Ph.D., director of Baylor’s Sleep Neuroscience and Cognition Laboratory, which found that making a to-do list for the following day before bed helps you to fall asleep faster and wake up fewer times during the night.
Surprise! Exam scores benefit from months of regular sleep
Science News for Students online
2020-01-03
Baylor sleep scientist Michael Scullin is quoted in this article about recent MIT research that looked at the importance of sleep to a students’ grades in a class. Scullin also investigates links between sleep and learning.
Articles (5)
An implementation intention strategy can improve prospective memory in older adults with very mild Alzheimer's disease
British Journal of Clinical Psychology2015 This study tested whether (1) very mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with impaired prospective memory (PM) for tasks that are supported by either spontaneous retrieval (focal PM) or strategic monitoring (non-focal PM) and (2) implementation intention (II) encoding could improve PM performance in very mild AD.
Sleep, Cognition, and Normal Aging Integrating a Half Century of Multidisciplinary Research
Perspectives on Psychological Sciences2015 Sleep is implicated in cognitive functioning in young adults. With increasing age, there are substantial changes to sleep quantity and quality, including changes to slow-wave sleep, spindle density, and sleep continuity/fragmentation. A provocative question for the field of cognitive aging is whether such changes in sleep physiology affect cognition (e.g., memory consolidation). We review nearly a half century of research across seven diverse correlational and experimental domains that historically have had little crosstalk. Broadly speaking, sleep and cognitive functions are often related in advancing age, though the prevalence of null effects in healthy older adults (including correlations in the unexpected, negative direction) indicates that age may be an effect modifier of these associations. We interpret the literature as suggesting that maintaining good sleep quality, at least in young adulthood and middle age, promotes better cognitive functioning and serves to protect against age-related cognitive declines.
Cognitive correlates of hallucinations and delusions in Parkinson's disease
Journal of Neurological Sciences2014 Hallucinations and delusions that complicate Parkinson's disease (PD) could lead to nursing home placement and are linked to increased mortality. Cognitive impairments are typically associated with the presence of hallucinations but there are no data regarding whether such a relationship exists with delusions.
Sleep, memory, and aging: The link between slow-wave sleep and episodic memory changes from younger to older adults
Psychological Aging2013 In younger adults, recently learned episodic memories are reactivated and consolidated during slow-wave sleep (SWS). Interestingly, SWS declines across the lifespan but little research has examined whether sleep-dependent memory consolidation occurs in older adults. In the present study, younger adults and healthy older adults encoded word pairs in the morning or evening and then returned following a sleep or no-sleep interval. Sleep stage scoring was obtained using a home sleep-stage monitoring system. In the younger adult group, there was a positive correlation between word retention and amount of SWS. In contrast, the older adults demonstrated no significant positive correlations, but one significant negative correlation, between memory and SWS. These findings suggest that the link between episodic memory and SWS that is typically observed in younger adults may be weakened or otherwise changed in the healthy elderly.
The Dynamic Multiprocess Framework: Evidence from prospective memory with contextual variability
Cognitive Psychology2013 The ability to remember to execute delayed intentions is referred to as prospective memory. Previous theoretical and empirical work has focused on isolating whether a particular prospective memory task is supported either by effortful monitoring processes or by cue-driven spontaneous processes. In the present work, we advance the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that both monitoring and spontaneous retrieval may be utilized dynamically to support prospective remembering. To capture the dynamic interplay between monitoring and spontaneous retrieval, we had participants perform many ongoing tasks and told them that their prospective memory cue may occur in any context. Following either a 20-min or a 12-h retention interval, the prospective memory cues were presented infrequently across three separate ongoing tasks. The monitoring patterns (measured as ongoing task cost relative to a between-subjects control condition) were consistent and robust across the three contexts. There was no evidence for monitoring prior to the initial prospective memory cue; however, individuals who successfully spontaneously retrieved the prospective memory intention, thereby realizing that prospective memory cues could be expected within that context, subsequently monitored. These data support the Dynamic Multiprocess Framework, which contends that individuals will engage monitoring when prospective memory cues are expected, disengage monitoring when cues are not expected, and that when monitoring is disengaged, a probabilistic spontaneous retrieval mechanism can support prospective remembering.
