Dr. Sara C. Med­nick is Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine, where she directs the Sleep and Cog­ni­tion (SaC) lab. Her first book, Take a Nap! Change Your Life put forth the sci­en­tif­ic basis for nap­ping to improve pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, cog­ni­tion, mood, and health. A world-renowned sci­en­tist, Dr. Mednick’s lab inves­ti­gates the mind and body mech­a­nisms that sup­port per­for­mance improve­ment. Her work has been con­tin­u­ous­ly fed­er­al­ly fund­ed with grants from the Nation­al Insti­tute of Health, Nation­al Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, Depart­ment of Defense Office of Naval Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Defense agency. She has been inter­viewed by every major mag­a­zine and news­pa­per, includ­ing the New York Times, New York­er, Los Ange­les Times, Wash­ing­ton Post, and BBC, and has been fea­tured on Good Morn­ing Amer­i­ca, among oth­ers. She resides in San Diego, and with her wife in the Hud­son Valley.