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Contact Details

Phone
+64 21 246 8700
Email
barbara.galland@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor
Department
Department of Paediatrics and Child Health (Dunedin)
Qualifications
PhD BSc(Hons) NZCS
Research summary
Children’s sleep health, adolescent sleep-wake biology, sleep-disordered breathing, sleep metrics
Teaching
  • MICN501 Medicine Fifth Year
Memberships
  • President – NZ Branch of the Australasian Sleep Association
  • Board of Directors of the Australasian Sleep Association
  • New Zealand Child and Youth Clinical Network (sleep) team
  • Action Editor for Behavioral Sleep Medicine
  • Review Editor for Frontiers in Neurology (Sleep Disorders)

Research

My research builds on the growing awareness that good sleep health is essential for optimal child development, influencing behavioural regulation, learning, physical and mental health, and overall well-being. When not addressed early, poor sleep health may have long-term consequences that extend into adulthood. Active research projects explore: the influence that screen time and different device types have on the sleep of children aged from preschool through to late adolescence; the impact that pre-sleep behaviours have on sleep and next-day functioning across all age groups; and the influence that early school start times have on teenagers' sleep health and wellbeing. I have considerable expertise in large-scale studies using wrist-worn actigraphy and experience in smaller-scale studies employing polysomnography to explore sleep architecture. All my research has a strong focus on sleep metrics essential for understanding the complexities of sleep..

Barbara completed a Bachelor of Science (1st class honours) degree in Physiology in 1984 and a PhD in Pharmacology in 1989 at the University of Otago. She has authored over 160 scientific research and review articles, with a primary focus on children's sleep health as part of her multidisciplinary and collaborative research programme.

Watch Barbara’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture

Publications

Fu, X., Lovell, A. L., Wall, C. R., Gontijo de Castro, T., Jiang, Y., Lawrence, R. L., … Galland, B. C. (2026). The effect of prebiotic intervention foods on caregiver-reported infant sleep and caregiver sleep quality during complementary feeding- secondary analysis of a randomized control trial. Nutritional Neuroscience. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/1028415x.2026.2635535 Journal - Research Article

Meredith-Jones, K. A., Haszard, J. J., Galland, B. C., Wickham, S.-R., Brosnan, B. J., Russell-Camp, T., & Taylor, R. W. (2026). Screens, teens, and sleep: Is the impact of nighttime screen use on sleep driven by physiological arousal? Journal of Sleep Research. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/jsr.70288 Journal - Research Article

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 Journal - Research Article

Miller, L., Kuroko, S., Rowan, M., Meredith-Jones, K., Haszard, J., Taylor, B., Taylor, R., & Galland, B. (2025). Exploring the screen-sleep connection in preschoolers using wearable cameras. SLEEP Advances, 6(Suppl. 1), O053. doi: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpaf053.053 Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

Kuroko, S., Miller, L., Rowan, M., Gray, A., Meredith-Jones, K., Edmonds, L., Taylor, B., Taylor, R., & Galland, B. (2025). Preschoolers' bedtime activities and subsequent sleep: A wearable camera study. SLEEP Advances, 6(Suppl. 1), O0001. doi: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpaf053.001 Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract

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