University lecturer honoured with 2023 British Psychological Society Award

Dr Jayne Spiller has received the Neil O’Connor Award for her research into sleep and its association with behavioural and emotional symptoms in children born extremely preterm.

The Psychology lecturer’s work, published in Sleep Medicine, was to determine whether children born extremely preterm are at increased risk for sleep disturbances and to explore relationships between extremely preterm birth, sleep and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and emotional symptoms. 

The study found that parent-reported sleep disturbances are more common in extremely preterm than term-born children at age 11, with extremely preterm children having increased risk for habitual snoring compared with term-born peers. 

It also found that night wakings scores mediate the association between extremely preterm birth and attention/emotional problems and therefore the findings suggests that interventions to improve sleep may also reduce attention/emotional problems following extremely preterm birth.

Dr Spiller said: “Our findings add to the growing evidence that children born at less than 27 weeks of gestation are at increased risk of sleep disturbance in middle childhood relative to children who are born at term. It’s already established that children born extremely preterm are at increased risk of greater inattention and emotional symptoms through being born early. Sleep can be improved through interventions and therefore, given the association between parent-reported night waking and behavioural and emotional outcomes, using sleep interventions with these children might be a promising option to improve attentional and emotional outcomes.”

Speaking about receiving the award, Dr Spiller added: “It’s an honour to be the recipient of the award. I had the privilege of presenting my research on sleep in children with neurodevelopmental conditions and children born preterm at the British Psychological Society developmental and cognitive sections’ conference in September this year. I’m very grateful for the nomination and to the British Psychological Society Developmental Section for this award.”