Kristen Knutson, PhD is a biomedical anthropologist who is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and a member of the Sleep, Metabolism and Health Center (sleep.uchicago.edu) at the University of Chicago.

Her research focuses on sleep and the risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Specifically, she is interested in understanding how day-to-day sleep patterns, including how much someone sleeps, how well he/she sleeps and when he/she sleeps, are associated with health and disease. Her research is also examining whether these sleep patterns partly explain the well-known racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She sleeps 8 hours per night, when her toddler allows.