Ashura Buckley is director of the Sleep and Neurodevelopment Core in the Office of the Clinical Director at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Her research focuses on sleep and autism, and the basics of the sleep/wake cycle. In this episode of “Synaptic,” she discusses the need to consider different perspectives when doing science, the connection between sleep and mental health, and the sacrifices her mother made for the family.