Megan Crawford

I have worked in Behavioural Sleep Medicine since 2005, when I did a placement with Professor Alice Gregory at Goldsmiths College. I completed my PhD with Professor Colin Espie at Glasgow Uni, and then my postdoctoral research fellowship with Dr Jason Ong at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. My research focuses on optimising psychological treatments for sleep disorders. I am currently a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde and a member of the Strathclyde Sleep Research Unit. In my research, I have focused on sleep treatment optimisation through measuring and improving treatment adherence, improving access to treatments and ensuring that the treatment is generalisable to a number of different groups. My work on treatment adherence started during my PhD, and since then I have developed a theoretical model to explain adherence to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure for sleep apnoea. The model focused on the synergy between psychological, biological and social factors. Improving access to treatment is particularly relevant for individuals experiencing insomnia since the treatment of choice (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) is not readily accessible. As a consequence, digital interventions have been developed to improve access. I recently evaluated one of these interventions as a potential treatment for sleep problems in chronic migraines. This study also nicely dovetailed into my third research interest which is ensuring that treatment is generalisable to other groups. So far I have evaluated CBT in individuals with migraines and also individuals with sleep apnoea. This research has demonstrated that we can treat insomnia when it co-occurs in the context of other conditions.