CBM Seminar Series – Sleep Medicine in the Prevention of Mental Disorders and Neurodegeneration

The College of Biomedicine was pleased to host Professor Yun Kwok WING, Choh Ming Li Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), as a distinguished speaker for the CBM Seminar Series on 31 August 2026. Professor Wing also serves as Director of the Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit at CUHK and is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions to the development of sleep and circadian medicine and research.

In his talk entitled "Sleep Medicine in the Prevention of Mental Disorders and Neurodegeneration", Professor Wing highlighted the critical role of sleep as both an etiological factor and an actionable target in clinical practice and public health. He reviewed his team's interdisciplinary research spanning clinical psychiatry, pediatrics, public health, neuropsychiatry, and digital AI medicine, which has opened new avenues for prevention and intervention.

Professor Wing presented compelling findings on adolescent insomnia, demonstrating that brief cognitive behavioral intervention can prevent progression to insomnia disorder, while digital CBT I reduces the one year incidence of depression by over 40%. For older adults, he emphasized the importance of REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) as a prodromal marker of future neurodegeneration, and described ongoing efforts to apply multimodal clinical omics digital AI deep phenotyping to pave the way for neuroprotective strategies.

The seminar stimulated active discussion among faculty, researchers, and students from diverse disciplines. Professor Wing's lecture underscored the transformative potential of integrating sleep medicine with digital innovation to advance prevention of mental disorders and neurodegenerative diseases across the lifespan.