Psychologist (Univ. of Vienna, Research for PhD. Thesis at Stanford University with Stephen LaBerge), psychotherapist for Integrative Gestalt, supervisor and clinical and health psychologist, and sleep and dream researcher, (University) teacher and writer. Her main interest is lucid dreaming, dreaming, sleep and sleep research. 1989, she founded the Institute for Consciousness and Dream Research and has organized international and interdisciplinary conferences. She is a founding member of the ASRA (Austrian Sleep Research Association, 1991). She was accredited as Somnologist by the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) in 2013, a member of the  European Insomnia Network (EIN) and the European Academy for Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia (CBT-I). She applied and evaluated lucid dreaming as a therapeutic technique for nightmares and founded “Sleep Coaching” – a non pharmacological approach for overcoming Sleep Problems and Sleep Disorders. Since 2011 she organizes annual press conferences for the World Sleep Day in the name of the Austrian Sleep Research Society (ASRA).

Leads research groups at the Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, and at Karolinska Institutet. With his research he aims to increase the knowledge and awareness of how we sleep in the rapidly developing 24 hour society, and its importance for health, cognitive processes and social behaviour. Two of the research questions we finds most intriguing concern how fast the brain can switch from sleep to wakefulness and why individuals are so differently affected by sleep loss. 

Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering and Department of Computer Science at Reykjavik University, Iceland. She is also the Director of the Reykjavik University Sleep Institute and has over 15 years of experience within the field of clinical and scientific sleep research.  Principal Investigator of the EU Horizon 2020 grant, SLEEP REVOLUTION - Revolution of sleep diagnostics and personalized health care based on digital diagnostics and therapeutics with health data integration (#965417) from 2021-2025. SLEEP REVOLUTION is an inter-disciplinary and international research and development project with 37 partner institutions and companies in Europe and Australia. Secretary of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) and the chair of the Assembly of National Sleep Societies (ANSS) and (ESRS) task force “Beyond the apnea-hypopnea index – Standardization of additional measures in adult sleep studies for obstructive sleep disordered breathing”.