Dr Rosie Jackson - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Medicine
You might say that Rosie Jackson is living her DREAM. Growing up in a family that was passionate about health and wellbeing triggered her interest in nutrition from an early age. A degree in Human Nutrition at the University of Otago has led to her PhD studies working on the DREAM project and continued into a postdoctoral research fellowship in sleep health research.
Rosie's PhD research - The DREAM study
DREAM is an intervention study looking at how sleep impacts diet, physical activity and screen time in 8-12 year old Dunedin children. Rosie is investigating whether mild sleep deprivation in children increases their desire to eat unhealthy foods, and increases the amount of time they spend in front of digital devices.
Wearable cameras are used to observe the children's behaviour, so Rosie and her colleagues can see exactly what children do when they do not get enough sleep. She hopes that this research will give the evidence needed to support sleep as a potential strategy for reducing childhood obesity in New Zealand.
An exciting research environment
Rosie trained as a dietitian and has always had an interest in childhood health. This area of study particularly interested her, as sleep intervention is a novel approach to childhood obesity prevention and treatment. Rosie finds it very exciting working within a team who are all passionate for this area of research.
"I have definitely developed a passion for research and would love to be able to continue working in the area of sleep and childhood obesity."
Advice for aspiring researchers
When she is not busy working on her research, Rosie loves to get outdoors with her family for walks on the beach, and to participate in her favourite sports. In addition to maintaining a good work-life balance, Rosie has some other words of wisdom for those interested in doing research:
"This is a great career to be in. Make sure that the research you are involved in is something you are passionate about and make the most of the opportunities presented to you."
Publications
Jackson, R. F., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., Morrison, S., Jaques, M., & Taylor, R. W. (2026). The influence of different processing rules on wearable camera data estimates of habitual screen time in children. Journal of Activity, Sedentary & Sleep Behaviors, 5, 3. doi: 10.1186/s44167-026-00095-1
Jaffray, K., Styles, S., Rose, S., & Jackson, R. (2026). Equity in diabetes technology access and uptake for youth with type 1 diabetes: Healthcare professional perspectives. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (NZSSD) Annual Scientific Meeting. (pp. 26). Retrieved from https://www.nzssd.org.nz/
Lagos, B., Styles, S., Jaffray, K., Rose, S., & Jackson, R. (2026). Youths' perspectives of nutrition in the management of type 1 diabetes, with or without diabetes technology: A qualitative study. Proceedings of the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes (NZSSD) Annual Scientific Meeting. (pp. 30). Retrieved from https://www.nzssd.org.nz/
Gu, C., Jackson, R. F., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Wickham, S.-R., Brosnan, B., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., & Taylor, R. W. (2025). Pre-bed screen use, activity and food in relation to sleep in youth: A repeated measures study. Pediatrics Open Science, 1(3), 1-10. doi: 10.1542/pedsos.2025-000765
Jackson, R. F., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., Morrison, S., Jaques, M., & Taylor, R. W. (2025). The impact of sleep loss on screen time in children: Secondary analyses of a randomised crossover trial using objective measures of screen time. Pediatric Obesity, 20(12), e70050. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.70050
Taylor, R. W., Galland, B. C., Heath, A.-L. M., Gray, A. R., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Fortune, S. A., Sullivan, T. A., Adebowale, T., McIntosh, D., Jackson, R. F., & Taylor, B. J. (2025). Long-term follow-up of the impact of brief sleep and lifestyle interventions in infancy on BMI z-score at 11 years of age: The POI randomized controlled trial. Pediatric Obesity, 20, e13204. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.13204
Galland, B. C., Haszard, J. J., Jackson, R., Morrison, S., Meredith-Jones, K., Elder, D. E., … Taylor, R. W. (2024). Predictors for achieving optimal sleep in healthy children: Exploring sleep patterns in a sleep extension trial. Sleep Health, 10(2), 213-220. doi: 10.1016/j.sleh.2023.09.012
Haszard, J. J., Jackson, R., Morrison, S., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Galland, B. C., Beebe, D. W., Elder, D. E., & Taylor, R. W. (2024). Losing sleep influences dietary intake in children: A longitudinal compositional analysis of a randomised crossover trial. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity, 21(1), 61. doi: 10.1186/s12966-024-01607-5
Jackson, R. (2024). Exploring the effects of sleep loss on children's eating behaviour and digital screen use (PhD). University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10523/43262
Jackson, R., Gu, C., Haszard, J., Meredith-Jones, K., Galland, B., Camp, J., Brown, D., & Taylor, R. (2024). The effect of prebedtime behaviors on sleep duration and quality in children: Protocol for a randomized crossover trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 13, e63692. doi: 10.2196/63692
Morrison, S., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., Jackson, R., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Elder, D. E., & Taylor, R. W. (2023). Where does the time go when children don't sleep? A randomized crossover study. Obesity, 31, 625-634. doi: 10.1002/oby.23615
Morrison, S., Jackson, R., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., Meredith-Jones, K. A., Fleming, E. A., … Elder, D. E., … Taylor, R. W. (2023). The effect of modest changes in sleep on dietary intake and eating behavior in children: Secondary outcomes of a randomized crossover trial. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 117, 317-325. doi: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2022.10.007
Taylor, R. W., Haszard, J. J., Jackson, R., Morrison, S., Beebe, D. W., Meredith-Jones, K. A., … Galland, B. C. (2023). Effect of sleep changes on health-related quality of life in healthy children: A secondary analysis of the DREAM Crossover Trial. JAMA Network Open, 6(3), e233005. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.3005
Jackson, R., Haszard, J. J., Morrison, S., Galland, B. C., McIntosh, D., Ward, A. L., Meredith-Jones, K. A., & Taylor, R. W. (2021). Measuring short-term eating behaviour and desire to eat: Validation of the child eating behaviour questionnaire and a computerized ‘desire to eat’ computerized questionnaire. Appetite, 167, 105661. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105661
Morrison, S., Galland, B. C., Haszard, J. J., Jackson, R., McIntosh, D. R., Beebe, D. W., Elder, D. E., Ward, A. L., Meredith-Jones, K., & Taylor, R. W. (2021). Eating in the absence of hunger in children with mild sleep loss: A randomized crossover trial with learning effects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 114, 1428-1437. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqab203
Kuroko, S., Black, K., Chryssidis, T., Finigan, R., Hann, C., Haszard, J., Jackson, R., Robinson, C., Thomson, C., Skidmore, P. (2020). Create Our Own Kai: A randomised control trial of a cooking intervention with group interview insights into adolescent cooking behaviours. Nutrients, 12(3), 796. doi: 10.3390/nu12030796
Ward, A. L., Galland, B. C., Haszard, J. J., Meredith-Jones, K., Morrison, S., McIntosh, D. R., Jackson, R., … Fangupo, L., Richards, R., Te Morenga, L., Smith, C., Elder, D. E., & Taylor, R. W. (2019). The effect of mild sleep deprivation on diet and eating behaviour in children: Protocol for the Daily Rest, Eating, and Activity Monitoring (DREAM) randomized cross-over trial. BMC Public Health, 19, 1347. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-7628-x
Black, K., Thomson, C., Chryssidis, T., Finigan, R., Hann, C., Jackson, R., Robinson, C., Toldi, O., & Skidmore, P. (2018). Pilot testing of an intensive cooking course for New Zealand adolescents: The Create-Our-Own Kai Study. Nutrients, 10(5), 556. doi: 10.3390/nu10050556