The pandemic has disrupted almost everything in our lives, including the quality of our sleep. Michael Grandner, PhD, the director of the Sleep & Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, talks about what his expertise can tell us about sleeping and dreaming during a global crisis, and tips for better "sleep hygiene."

Pain is a subjective response with multiple features and components, said Frank Porreca, PhD, professor of pharmacology and anesthesiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.

The university will start the spring semester on Jan. 13 in stage one of its reentry plan.

UArizona Health Sciences immunobiologist Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, says the COVID-19 vaccine is safe, and he will take it when it becomes available.

Mind controlling microchips and permanently altered DNA are two widely shared conspiracy theories about what the COVID-19 vaccine might do to anyone who takes it. Dr. Elizabeth Connick, an infectious disease expert at the University of Arizona says neither one of those things are true. She's so confident, in fact, that she already took the first dose of Pfizer's vaccine.

As each month passes amid this ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the daily number of infections has continued to march in one direction only—steadily upward. Dr. Joe K. Gerald, associate professor of Public Health Policy and Management at the University of Arizona, said, “For most states, (the data indicate) that viral transmission is broadly increasing. Reporting national estimates only has limited utility because each state is fighting its own COVID-19 battle. The U.S. figures then reflect in a rough sense the average win/loss ratio among the fifty states weighted by population."

Los Angeles County has been so overwhelmed it is running out of oxygen, with ambulance crews instructed to use oxygen only for their worst-case patients. Arizona, once heralded for turning the corner after a summer surge, now has 69 of every 100,000 residents hospitalized with the virus — the highest rate in the country. "The virus is just basically transmitting almost uninhibited through our population,” said Dr. Joe Gerald, who has been tracking the spread of the virus and was among those urging a shelter-in-place order.

Scott Sherman, MD, PhD, and Torsten Falk, PhD, both associate professors in the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, have developed a method of using ketamine in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The university has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Pharmather Inc., a subsidiary of Newscope Capital Corporation, for the development and commercialization of the method.

Anyone making a New Year’s resolution can set themselves up for success by understanding how people can effectively make changes in their lives.