Rate My Professor Cathy Hill

Professor Cathy Hill, BM, MSc, PhD, FRCPCH, is Professor of Paediatric Sleep Medicine at the University of Southampton. She is a member of the Paediatrics and Child Health research group within Clinical and Experimental Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine. Hill holds an honorary consultant position in paediatric sleep medicine at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. She established Southampton Sleep Training in 2011, which has trained hundreds of professionals in managing paediatric sleep disorders. Her academic background includes degrees from the University of Southampton and fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Hill's research specializations in paediatric sleep medicine include sleep disturbances in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), chronic insomnia in children with autism spectrum disorder, sleep quality in childhood epilepsy, obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) in Down syndrome, and breathing patterns during sleep in children at high altitude. She co-leads the DISCA project, developing digital sleep support for children with ADHD, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Key publications include 'The management of sleep disturbances in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): an update of the literature' (2024, Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics), 'Role of overnight oximetry in assessing the severity of obstructive sleep apnoea in typically developing children: a multicentre study' (2024, Archives of Disease in Childhood), 'Sleep related rhythmic movement disorder: phenotypic characteristics and treatment response in a paediatric cohort' (2023, Sleep Medicine), 'Prevalence of sleep disorder diagnoses and sleep medication prescriptions in individuals with ADHD across the lifespan' (2023, BMJ Mental Health), 'Placebo effects in randomized trials of pharmacological and neurostimulation interventions for mental disorders: an umbrella review' (2024, Molecular Psychiatry), and 'Breathing patterns and oxygenation saturation during sleep in children habitually living at high altitude in the Andes' (2022, Frontiers in Pediatrics). Hill has delivered public lectures on sleep problems in children with Down syndrome (2017) and sleep in children with neurodisability (2017), spoken at the International Pediatric Sleep Association (2018), and chaired the Chief Medical Officers Working group as an invited expert (2018). Her contributions advance clinical understanding and management of sleep disorders in neurodiverse children.