Crystal joined the Sleep/Wake Research Centre in 2026 as a doctoral student at Massey University in the School of Health Sciences at the Wellington campus. Her doctoral thesis aims to understand how eastward ultra long-range (ULR) flights affect the circadian timekeeping system and how these flights impact the sleep and cognitive performance of flight crew.

This research will measure how long circadian recovery takes, how performance is affected during and after these trips, and what strategies flight crew are already using to cope - providing airlines and the travelling public with an evidence base for improving crew support, fatigue risk management, and sleep/wake strategies for ULR travel. This research continues Crystal’s previous work investigating how sleep disruption and circadian misalignment impact human performance.