Rate My Professor Barbara Galland

Barbara Galland is Research Professor in the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. She earned her Bachelor of Science with first-class honours in Physiology in 1984 and her PhD in Pharmacology in 1989 from the University of Otago. Galland has been affiliated with the University of Otago since 1989 and was promoted to Professor in February 2021.

As Principal Investigator and head of the Children’s Sleep Health Research Group, her research, spanning over 30 years across paediatric age groups, centres on sleep health in preschoolers, children, and teenagers. Key interests include the effects of sleep disturbances and sleep-related breathing disorders on behaviour, cognition, academic performance, overweight, obesity, type 1 diabetes, and biological mechanisms underlying Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy. She has authored over 160 scientific research publications, accumulating more than 6,400 citations.

Notable publications comprise “Normal sleep patterns in infants and children: a systematic review of observational studies” (2012), “Sleep Disordered Breathing and Academic Performance: A Meta-analysis” (2015), and “Predictors for achieving optimal sleep in healthy children: Exploring sleep patterns in a sleep extension trial” (2023). Current projects encompass healthy school start times for adolescent sleep, the Preschool Camera Study, and teenage sleep quality with next-day functioning. Her work receives funding from the Health Research Council, Cure Kids, Freemasons of New Zealand, and Marsden Fund, and involves collaborations with the Sleep/Wake Research Centre at Massey University and various University of Otago departments. Galland delivered her Inaugural Professorial Lecture in 2021.