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Headshot of Fran Pilkington-Cheney

Fran Pilkington-Cheney

Senior Lecturer

Psychology

Staff Group(s)
Psychology

Role

Fran Pilkington-Cheney is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology and Sleep in the Nottingham Institute of Psychology at NTU. Her research focuses on understanding and addressing the effects of sleep, fatigue and circadian disruption on health, wellbeing, safety and performance, particularly in transport and shift work settings. Fran teaches on the final year module Psychology of Sleep, and contributes to undergraduate research methods teaching. In addition, Fran supervises sleep, fatigue and circadian disruption based undergraduate and postgraduate projects. Alongside her research and teaching, Fran is committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion within research and higher education.

Career overview

Fran completed her Undergraduate degree in Psychology at Loughborough University in 2010. She then worked for several years as a researcher in industry, focusing on fatigue risk management particularly within aviation. In 2018, she joined the Transport Safety Research Centre at Loughborough University, UK and was involved in numerous projects exploring sleepiness and fatigue in real-world settings, for example in tunnelling and construction, London city bus drivers, and in the context of driver state monitoring, fatigue detection and intervention, and fitness-to-drive. Alongside this, Fran completed her PhD part time, under the supervision of Prof. Ashleigh Filtness, exploring the management of sleepiness within the applied context of bus driving, with a specific focus on the use of sugar. Fran began her Lectureship at  NTU in 2022.

Research areas

Fran's research examines the impact of sleep, fatigue and circadian disruption on health, wellbeing, safety and performance. Her primary interests are in the measurement, management and mitigation of sleepiness and fatigue during safety-critical tasks, particularly driving and during shift work. She is particularly interested in developing evidence-based approaches to support individuals working in environments that challenge healthy sleep and circadian rhythms. Through predominantly applied research, her work aims to improve the health, wellbeing and safety of shift workers and other populations vulnerable to sleep disruption and circadian misalignment, particularly within transport and other safety-critical environments.

Fran is currently Principal Investigator on a British Academy-funded project exploring habitual caffeine use among professional truck drivers, and Co-Investigator and Project Manager on a Road Safety Trust-funded project investigating sleepiness and driving risk in shift workers.

External activity

Fran is an active member of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) and currently serves as Chair of its Equality Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC). Fran also sits on the Education Committee of the British Sleep Society (BSS).

Fran acts as a reviewer for several journals including the Journal of Sleep Research, Accident Analysis and Prevention and Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour. She regularly presents her research at national and international conferences and engages with industry and workplace stakeholders to promote evidence-based approaches to sleep, fatigue and safety.

Press expertise

  • Sleepiness/fatigue
  • Shift work
  • Sleepy driving
  • Fatigue risk management
  • Counteracting sleepiness