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Rosalind Cartwright received a Ph.D. degree in 1949 from Cornell University. She then taught Psychology at Mount Holyoke College. At the University of Chicago she did research with Carl Rogers. Their studies were published as prize winning book “Psychotherapy and Personality Change”. At the University of Illinois College Of Medicine she opened a sleep laboratory in 1963 and began a series of studies funded by NSF, NIH and NIMH which continued for forty years. In 1977 she was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychology at Rush University Medical Center, a position she held for 30 years. There she opened the first Sleep Disorder Service and Research Center in the state of Illinois. She held an endowed University chair and trained many residents in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders while continuing to conduct research studies on sleep and dreaming.

In 2004 was the recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award given by the Sleep Research Society. She is frequently interviewed on TV on her work with sleepwalking violence, dreams that help the depressed recover, and snoring that disturbs the sleep of the partner. She has appeared on Oprah, Phil Donahue, Court TV, Larry King Live, and on radio. Dr. Cartwright retired from Rush 2008 and is currently Professor Emeritus in the Graduate College of Rush in the Neuroscience Section where she continues to teach.

She has authored over 200 journal articles and four books on sleep and dreaming:

"Night Life: Explorations in Dreaming"

"A Primer on Sleep and Dreaming"

"Crisis Dreaming: Using Your Dreams to Solve Your Problems" (with Lynn Lamberg)

"The Twenty-Four Hour Mind: The Role of Sleep and Dreaming in Our Emotional Lives"