Dr Emma Louise Gale talks about the science of sleep

Linda Barclay Isles

Wednesday 1 April 2026

Most of us don’t get enough of it, even though we spend nearly a third of our lives doing it – and Dr Emma Louise Gale is determined to help us understand sleep better.   

As a Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Health in the School of Medicine, Emma is rapidly becoming a leading voice in sleep health, particularly its role in shaping the wellbeing of young people.   

Emma, who completed her PhD in St Andrews in 2024, focuses on the intersection of sleep science, public health, and social equity, all driven by a commitment to reducing health inequalities and ensuring that children, families, and frontline professionals are active partners in research.  

“My PhD examined relationships between sleep, metabolism, and obesity in children, particularly during the peri-pubertal years (ages 8–14). I finished my PhD in May and started a research fellowship the following month. It was a one-year post that the School of Medicine created, and it was quite different from a traditional post-doc. Instead of joining someone else’s project, I was given the freedom to explore my own ideas, develop my skills, and try to secure my own funding – an opportunity I grabbed with both hands.”  

“I have been successful in securing funding through the Medical Research Council Impact Accelerator Awards, as well as the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which allowed me to carry out a range of public-facing impact work. My field - sleep and sleep health - is an increasingly prominent topic across public health, government, education, and healthcare sectors. It’s a very exciting time to be working in this area.   

“Over the past year I’ve collaborated extensively with schools, community groups, councils, and the NHS, building strong stakeholder relationships.”  

Her collaborations extend across NHS services in Fife, Lothian, and Tayside, as well as previous work with NHS mental health services on sleep in specialist clinical populations. These projects have deepened understanding of how sleep disturbances intersect with broader health outcomes, particularly in bipolar disorder and neurodegenerative disease.  

“On World Sleep Day in 2025 I created a national survey, Scotland Speaks, to investigate sleep patterns across the Scottish population and explore public perceptions of how sleep could be improved.   

“People often say, ‘Everyone I know sleeps terribly’, but I wanted to know where the public believes responsibility lies with individuals, the clinical sector, or national policy. The survey was unfunded, and I created it in my own time, but it quickly gained momentum. Over 5,000 people completed it within five weeks.   

“Then, thanks to media engagement, including radio and television, the survey continued to grow. A BBC Alba documentary featuring some of the survey work aired recently and brought in another 800 participants.  

“The results have been fascinating. Adults reported their sleep patterns, completed the Insomnia Severity Index, and provided wearable device data when available. Parents reported on their children’s sleep.   

“In total we received around 4,500 open-text responses to the question: What should public health authorities or government do to improve sleep in Scotland? I analysed all these responses, and eight key domains emerged.   

“As expected, adults highlighted work-related stress, digital availability, commuting, and lifestyle pressures as major factors. For children, screen use, homework, and school start times were dominant themes.  

“A major one was sleep education - not only for children but also for teachers, clinicians, and medical students. Despite sleep occupying a third of our lives, it receives almost no dedicated teaching in medical training. This is something I hope to influence long-term, although meaningful structural change will likely require a tenured academic position.”  

Emma’s research seeks to understand how modifiable lifestyle behaviours such as sleep, screen use, and physical activity interact with wider social and environmental factors.   

Her work contributes to national and international projects, including large-scale systematic reviews, longitudinal analyses using the Growing Up in Scotland study and UK Biobank, and the development of innovative family-based interventions such as Sleep Well Scotland and Sleep and Health through personalised evening routines in Children with Obesity (SHAPE study).  

 An advocate for patient and public involvement (PPI), Emma is helping to lay the groundwork for a national framework on coproducing research with children and young people, shaping how sleep research is conducted across Scotland and beyond.  

Emma has spent more than a decade engaging the public with science. She has worked with over 100 schools and reached more than 8,000 pupils, representing the University at events including Mind and Matter, Pint of Science, National Science Week, National Careers Week, International Women’s Day, and the Festival of Social Science.   

“Building on this work, I’ve been developing several projects. One is a school-based programme funded by the MRC, aimed at delivering sleep education through workshops for children, a parent session, teacher CPD, and even a “sleep health conference” specifically for pupils aged 8–12.   

“We held the conference at Dundee Science Centre in autumn with 125 children from four schools across three local authorities. The engagement was fantastic and we brought in workshop leaders from universities across the UK, and the outcome was incredibly rewarding.”  

So, the burning question - what can we all be doing to improve our sleep?   

“The most important factor for good sleep is consistency. A stable routine is more beneficial than alternating between good and bad nights, because the body depends on predictable cues. Avoid stimulating activities before bed and ideally keep phones out of the bedroom, though most people don’t.   

“Current evidence suggests that while the screen itself is not always the main issue, the emotional and social stimulation of digital communication, especially late at night, can significantly disrupt sleep.  

“We also see marked “social jet lag” in teenagers, whose schedules may shift dramatically on weekends. In my PhD data, some teens had up to a six-hour discrepancy. And the ongoing impact of social media on young people is a concern. With countries like Australia now banning social media for under-16s, it’s clear the issue is coming to a head.”  

Emma also teaches in undergraduate and postgraduate medical research modules, supervises dissertation and summer students, and supports emerging researchers working with neurodiverse children and those with complex care needs.   

“Looking ahead to the next five years, I’d like to see multiple strands of work emerge from Scotland Speaks. One recently successful grant starting in September 2026, focuses on developing clinical guidelines for childhood insomnia, which currently do not exist. Another aims to support new parents by providing consistent, evidence-based baby sleep guidance, something that is notably absent from the Baby Box provided by the Scottish Government. I’ve applied for funding with the Lullaby Trust to co-produce new materials that could be included in future boxes.  

“But the biggest goal is broader: to have sleep recognised as a fundamental public health issue by government. It may take longer than five years, but progress is already being made. The Labour Party picked up the recent Sleep Action Manifesto (we are a partner of) and acknowledged sleep as a key pillar of health.  

“This year, a working group will begin exploring curriculum changes. Embedding sleep within the national curriculum, and eventually within medical education, would be transformative.  

“Overall, sleep remains a hugely under-addressed area of public health, but that also makes it an incredibly exciting time to be working in the field.”  

It is a wonder Emma ever finds the time to sleep…