A healthy sleep regime is as important to the body as proper nutrition. Yet, in a culture that thrives on being perpetually plugged in, the vast majority of adults and children fall short of the recommended amount of sleep needed each night, and too often sleep is interrupted. Proper sleep is vital for physiological recovery from daily activity, illness or injury; still, society continues to undermine its value. Fascinated by the ripple effect of inadequate sleep, notable sleep expert Dr. Efrosini Papaconstantinou has extensively researched sleep patterns and disturbances in children, adolescents and their families. In 2014, she joined as an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Nursing Program; and is focused on promoting the importance of sleep and the intricate role it plays in the brain’s ability to make important decisions; improve productivity, exercise, and nutrition; and promote cardiovascular and immune system function. Through her research, she aims to influence public policy to provide targeted interventions to improve sleep and other health outcomes for at-risk groups including hospitalized children and their families; and adolescents. She is one of only a few Canadian researchers using actigraphy, an objective measure of sleep and wake patterns. As a paediatric clinical nurse, Dr. Papaconstantinou’s research motivation stems from witnessing first-hand, the negative effects of sleep deprivation on hospitalized children and their families. In 2014, she received her Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Science from the University of Toronto. For her dissertation, she developed a novel program to improve the sleep of paediatric patients during hospitalization and once they are discharged home. Results of her Relax to Sleep program showed that children who underwent intervention averaged 50 extra minutes of night-time sleep while in hospital, and they had less sleep disturbance after being discharged. Dr. Papaconstantinou earned both her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2001 and her Master of Science in Clinical Sciences in 2004, from McMaster University in Hamilton. From 2005 to 2010, she served as a full-time lecturer in the School of Nursing at York University’s Faculty of Health, then as a lecturer and clinical instructor at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto from 2011 to 2013. Ontario Tech University