Prof. Sargento is the Dean of the Ribeiro Sanches High School of Health (Escola Superior de Saúde Ribeiro Sanches), in the Lusófona Group (Grupo Lusófona), Portugal, where he is also full professor, and the clinical director of two health associated institutions. He holds a degree in Clinical Psychology, postgraduate in Developmental Psychology, DEA in Forensic Psychology and in Psychobiology and PhD in Clinical Neuropsychology, developing his research in two laboratories (COPELABS and NICiTeS). He is member of the editorial team and reviewer of several scientific periodicals. Belonging to several scientific associations, he has published, mainly, in the area of psychology and sleep studies, and on scientific dissemination as well.

His research interests are currently focused mainly on the area of sleep studies, and cognitive and emotional neuropsychology. He developed screening measures for sleep disorders, and validation of measures on sleep; he’s focus is on the behavioral and emotional conditions of sleep disorders. He holds interests also in psychometrics (essentially Rasch's model), in evolutionary psychology and in forensic psychology. More recently, it has attempted to develop evidence-based paradigms for the study of non-Conventional Therapies.