Professor Colin Espie PhD, DSc, FRSM, FBPsS is a Scottish professor of Sleep Medicine in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Somerville College. He is closely involved with the development of the Sleep & Circadian Neuroscience Institute. His particular areas of research expertise are in the assessment and treatment of sleep disorders, most particularly the management of insomnia using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and in studies on the aetiology and pathophysiology of insomnia.
Biography
Educated at the University of Glasgow with a PHD and DSc on sleep disorders, Professor Espie was the founding Director of the University of Glasgow Sleep Centre from 1995 - 2012. He holds and has held adjunct or visiting professorial appointments at the Universities of Sydney, Rome, Laval and Rochester. Professor Espie co-founded Big Health, the behavioral medicine company, with entrepreneur Peter Hames. The first programme, Sleepio is an online CBT-based sleep improvement program, launched in 2010 with the intention "to disseminate evidence based CBT" and make "CBT for insomnia accessible to the wider population for the first time". The programme has been validated in a randomised placebo-controlled trial and has since featured in other research conducted and published by Professor Espie and colleagues. Professor Espie has published around 200 scientific papers and has written and edited several books including Oxford Handbook of Sleep and Sleep Disorders with Dr Charles M. Morin, Director of the Centre on Sleep Disorders at Laval University in 2012.
Other appointments
Professor Espie is an Emeritus Professor in the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow. He is also immediate past Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Sleep Research Society and serves on its Sleep Medicine and Sleep Education committees. He is also Membership Chair of the World Sleep Federation, Deputy Editor for the Journal of Sleep Research, the official journal of the ESRS and Deputy Editor of SLEEP, the official journal of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He also serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Behavioral Sleep Medicine.
Selected recent publications
Sensitivity and specificity of measures of the insomnia experience: A comparative study of psychophysiologic insomnia, insomnia associated with mental disorder and good sleep. Kohn, L. et al., Sleep, 28, 104-112.
Overcoming insomnia and sleep problems: a self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques. Espie, CA.,, Robinson Publishing.
The attention-intention-effort pathway in the development of Psychophysiologic Insomnia: a theoretical review. Espie, CA. et al.,, Sleep Medicine Reviews, 10, 215-245.
Randomised clinical effectiveness trial of nurse-administered small group CBT for persistent insomnia in general practice. Espie CA. et al.,, Sleep, 30, 574-584.
Randomized controlled clinical effectiveness trial of Cognitive Behavior Therapy versus Treatment as Usual for persistent insomnia in cancer patients. Espie CA. et al.,, Journal of Clinical Oncology, 26, 4651-4658. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.13.9006.
'Stepped care': a health technology solution for delivering Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as a first line insomnia treatment. Espie, CA., Sleep, 32, 1549-1558.
The natural history of insomnia: a population-based 3-year longitudinal study. Morin C. et al.,, Archives of Internal Medicine, 169, 447-453. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2008.610.
A randomized, placebo-controlled, trial of online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for chronic Insomnia Disorder delivered via an automated media-rich web application. Espie CA. et al.,, Sleep, 35, 769-781. doi: 10.5665/sleep.1872
Oxford Handbook of sleep and sleep disorders. Espie CA. and Morin C.,, Oxford University Press.
The Sleep Condition Indicator: a clinical screening tool to evaluate Insomnia Disorder. Espie CA.,, BMJ Open. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004183
