Emma C. Sullivan

Postdoctoral Research Associate

University of York, UK

About me

I am currently a Research Associate with a passion for understanding the associations between sleep, emotion regulation, and mental health. Specifically, I am interested in the mechanisms by which sleep supports emotion regulation and mental health. For example, how does sleep support the ability to implement adaptive emotion regulation strategies? And, how does a lack of sleep increase vulnerability to psychological disturbance?

I am also interested in the impacts of smartphone and social media use on sleep and mental health in adolescents. Specifically, I am interested in using smartphone bans as an educational tool to highlight the potential benefits of a digital detox on adolescents' sleep and wellbeing.

To explore these questions, I use a wide range of methods such as self-report questionnaires, psychophysiology (skin conductance and heart rate), objective recordings (wearables), virtual reality, and polysomnography as well as statistical analysis techniques such as linear mixed modelling.

Updates

April 2025: I attended the REAL workshop in KU Leuven on Experience Sampling Methods.
December 2024: Grant success 2... I was awarded a £12,450 ECR Pilot Project Grant from the Circadian Mental Health Network to investigate the influence of sleep parameters on emotional inertia.
December 2024: Grant success 1... I was awarded a £14,512 ECR Pilot Project Grant from the Huo Family Foundation to investigate the impacts of smartphone use on social, emotional and cognitive functioning and sleep in adolescents.
December 2024: I was one of the researchers involved in the Channel 4 documentary "Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones". Here we explored the effects of a 21-day smartphone ban on 12-year-olds wellbeing, sleep, and cognitive functions. We found some positive preliminary evidence which received coverage from the University. We are in the process of publishing the rest of the findings (stay tuned!).
October 2024: I wrote a blog post for Mental Elf, reviewing an article on whether sleep interventions delivered by non-expert practitioners are feasible for youth mental health.
September 2024: I presented my PhD work on sleep and VR at the European Sleep Research Society Conference in Seville (see my task slides).
July 2024: I co-organised the Symposium on "Sleep and Mental Health: From Mechanisms to Practice" and presented my PhD work on sleep and VR at the British Association of Psychopharmacology conference at the University of Birmingham (see my talk slides).
June 2024: I presented my PhD work on sleep and VR as part of the University of York's interdisciplinary Celebrating Spaces event.
May 2024: I became a co-editor on a special issue in Neuropsychologia on the role of sleep in learning, memory, and emotion processing.
May 2024: I gave a talk on "Sleep and mental health: regulating emotions in a virtual world" as part of Pint of Science 2024.
April 2024: I delivered an academic taster session to sixth-formers on Narcissistic Personality Disorder as part of York Next Steps to give them an insight to what a Year 1 Psychology seminar involves.
February 2024: I delivered workshops to sixth-formers on sleep and emotions as part of a widening participation outreach program (York Next Steps) to give them a flavour of what university lectures and seminars are like.
January 2024: I passed my viva with no corrections! I had some wonderful discussions with my examiners and overall a positive experience.
November 2023: I submitted my PhD! Titled "The cognitive mechanisms by which sleep supports emotion regulation and mental health".
November 2023: Took part in I'm a Scientist Psychology Zone, an online chat hosting platform where students can connect with psychologists, see the report here.
October 2023: Contributed to an article in The Times on sleep in middle age.
September 2023: Attended the BPS Cognitive Conference at the University of Bristol. I presented my work on the impact of sleep deprivation on arousal responses to prolonged ambiguous threat (see my talk slides). As the ECR representative of the BPS Cognitive Committee, I also organised an ECR Research Blitz and a pub quiz.
July 2023: Press release on our latest work examining whether high sleep quality and adaptive emotion regulation promote resilience to depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic.
July 2023: Attended the British Association of Psychopharmacology conference at the University of Manchester. I presented two posters on my study examining the influence of high sleep quality and adaptive emotion regulation strategies on depression and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic (see my poster), and also my work on the impact of sleep deprivation on arousal responses to prolonged ambiguous threat (see my poster).
July 2023: Delivered an interactive workshop on "Sleep what is it good for?" to Year 12 students as part of the York Experience Summer School at the University of York.
July 2023: Attended the Experimental Psychology Society conference at the University of Swansea. I gave a talk on my virtual reality study examining the impact of sleep deprivation on arousal responses to prolonged ambiguous threat (see my talk).

Contact details

Email: emma.sullivan@york.ac.uk

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