Sleep/Wake Research Centre

12/11/2025

🌍 This week, Sleep/Wake Researchers Leigh Signal and Karyn O'Keeffe are at the Working Time Society Shiftwork Symposium in Brazil, sharing their research and hearing from others who focus on shift work for their research and work.

✈️ Leigh has presented her insights on fatigue management based on her work in aviation: managing fatigue in safety-critical operations and changing crew behaviours isn’t just about fatigue science - combining that science with operational knowledge is key 🗝️

🩺 Karyn is presenting findings from a nationwide survey of healthcare leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand, completed in collaboration with Linsey Steege from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This work provides important insights into how leaders view fatigue in healthcare - and what that means for managing risk.

Karyn is also presenting findings from a systematic review completed with Sleep/Wake Researchers Dee Muller and Leigh Signal. The team evaluated differences in health and performance between permanent night work 🌙 and rotating shift work with night shifts 🔄- a critical question for industries relying on 24/7 operations. 🧠 At the conference, Karyn is sharing the review’s findings on mental health outcomes.

16/10/2025

Sleep/Wake Researchers, Dee Muller and Leigh Signal, recently wrote an article about how good sleep can support good mental health, and the research they are doing in this area. Check out the article if you're interested in knowing more about their research and their tips for good sleep.

By Professor Leigh Signal and Dr Dee Muller.

07/10/2025

⭐ Superstar sleep/wake researcher, Dee Muller, was a recent guest on an episode of the Speak Up - Kōrerotia podcast, along with Jasneek Chawla and Sally Staton from The University of Queensland. They chatted about the importance of sleep, helpful ways of thinking about it, how it is essential that its importance is recognised among health professionals and others, how it supports wellbeing in young people, and how social inequities can have a profound impact on sleep. It's well worth a listen! https://plains.org.nz/episode/867390a2-3675-4472-aec9-7b32928c7b59

We don't often consider sleep a human right - yet, it is fundamental to our physical and mental wellbeing, as well as our day-to-day cognitive and social functioning. Guests Dee Muller (Sleep/Wake Research Centre), Jasneek Chawla (Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland; Australasian Sleep Association) and Sally Staton (Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland) discuss the importance of sleep, and how sleep is both shaped by and perpetuates social inequities.

10/09/2025

The Sleep/Wake Research Centre team has been at the WorldSleep conference in Singapore this week. We have thoroughly crammed our brains with new research on sleep, circadian rhythms and shift work and look forward to sharing our new knowledge with those we work with.