Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

Navi Mental Health Wayfinder

Robyn Stremler
RN, PhD

Professor
Associate Dean, Academic

“Sleep can be difficult to achieve, yet it’s critically important for families.”

Dr. Robyn Stremler’s research focuses on ways to improve sleep and health outcomes in infants, children and parents, through pregnancy and beyond. Her Sleep TYME (Throughout Your Motherhood Experience) study will determine how common sleep problems are, what factors make sleep problems more likely to occur, and if sleep problems during pregnancy affect the health of women or their babies. Dr. Stremler, who is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) New Investigator, also examines sleep in families with an acutely or chronically ill child.

In 2011, the Canadian Sleep Society honoured Dr. Stremler with its Roger Broughton Young Investigator Award. Dr. Stremler is also an Adjunct Scientist with the Hospital for Sick Children and a Nursing Research Associate with the Hospital for Sick Children’s Centre for Nursing.

Visit Dr. Stremler’s Website

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  • Academic Credentials
    2006 – Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Toronto and University of California, San Francisco
    2003 – PhD, University of Toronto
    1996 – MSc(A), McGill University, Montreal
    1992 – BSc(Hons), Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
  • Publications
    Dr. Stremler’s PubMed link is available here.

PhD Students / Trainees

Krista Keilty

Sleep Disturbance in Family Caregivers of Technology Dependent Children

In this prospective cohort study, sleep and related health outcomes (i.e., quality of life, depression, daytime sleepiness and fatigue) in family caregivers of technology dependent children (e.g., those requiring home mechanical ventilation) will be compared to sleep in family caregivers of healthy age-matched children. Krista Keilty will evaluate sleep using actigraphy, a wristwatch-like device that provides objective data, along with other data sources, including a customized sleep diary and a validated measure of sleep quality. Caregiver, child and environmental factors that may influence sleep will also be explored. The results of this investigation will inform the development of targeted sleep interventions for family caregivers and will be of interest to child health clinicians, researchers, policymakers and advocates.

Efrosini Papaconstantinou

The Feasibility and Acceptability of the Relax to Sleep Program on Paediatric Sleep During Hospitalization and Beyond: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

The primary purpose of Efrosini Papaconstantinou’s study is to examine the feasibility of the Relax to Sleep program on hospitalized children. The Relax to Sleep program consists of parental education and relaxation breathing for children. Hospitalized children meeting eligibility criteria will be randomized to either the intervention group or the usual care group. Both groups will wear an actigraph, a small device the size of a wristwatch, which objectively measures periods of sleep and wakefulness. Although this is a pilot study, comparisons will be made to examine sleep outcomes between both groups. Other comparisons include anxiety levels and the development of post-hospital maladaptive behaviours.

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