Claudia Maldonado BSc MSc:

Claudia has had extensive training in sleep and environmental physiology, particularly related to the transportation industry. Her skills also encompass clinical diagnoses of sleep disorders in adults and in children.

She obtained her basic science degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, she completed a Master of Science degree by dissertation, entitled, Sleepiness: consequences for South African truck drivers and a new instrument for its assessment. Claudia’s research interests include how people cope with the 24-hour day; the consequences of fatigue and sleepiness in truck drivers, performance and sleepiness, and the effects of sleep deprivation in children.

The development of a cartoon sleepiness scale has been a unique breakthrough in the assessment of sleepiness across race and culture and has facilitated the measurement of sleepiness in a multicultural population where literacy rates are low. Claudia also has developed a portable composite tool to measure environmental variables that impact on comfort and affect performance.

Her recent publications include: A pictorial sleepiness scale based on cartoon faces (Sleep 27:541-548); Sleep behaviour of South African adolescents (Sleep 25:417-421); Sleep, work schedules and accident risk in South African truck drivers (South African Journal of Science 98:319-324); Coping with the 24-hour society – Focus on shift work and sleepiness. (Occupational Journal of Southern Africa 5:22-27).