Season 7, Episode 10 w Prof Jill Dorrian the Dean who is not Mean (Average) on sleep, shiftwork, alcohol and lots more

Dean of Research UniSA Justice & Society

Jill Dorrian is a Professor in Psychology with a PhD in sleep and chronobiology research and a Master of Biostatistics. From the beginning of her PhD, Jill conducted laboratory and field studies with a consistent focus on collaboration and translation. Her PhD and early post-doctoral work were supported by the Australian Shiftwork and Workload Consortium, a 10-year collaboration with Australian Rail Industry operators and safety regulators. This work informed fatigue risk management (the over-arching term to describe risks relating to sleep loss and performance impairment in the industry) in rail.

Following a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, she continued to conduct in-workplace studies for rail, emergency services, and health. More recently, having also worked with mining, construction, ports, and forestry, providing research and education to promote fatigue management.

As a champion for the importance of sleep for healthy development, she also works closely with colleagues in nursing and midwifery, investigating the relationship between sleep during pregnancy and maternal and fetal health. She has collaborated closely with Resilient Youth Australia, a not-for-profit dedicated to promoting health and learning for school students in Australasia.

Jill is heavily involved with research student supervision and training in publishing and other forms of research communication and was recognised by the Australian Graduate Research Council for excellence in graduate research supervision.

Much of her current work is focused on behavioural coping strategies for remaining healthy despite exposure to sleep loss. In particular, along with colleagues in psychology, nutrition, and activity, we study chronobehaviour – investigating the health impacts, not only of what we do but when we do it.

Contact Jill at Jill.Dorrian@unisa.edu.au 

Twitter: @JillDorrian 

Contact me at iandunican@sleep4performance.com.au or www.sleep4performance.com.au and check out the YouTube channel.