Ph.D. (UCT)

Background and research interests

• Sleep and psychiatric disorders
• Sleep and memory
• Sleep and emotion processing
• Contributions of dreaming to cognitive and emotion processing

Selected grants

•  Wellcome Trust Mental Health Award (2023–Present) | Principal Investigator | Value: R53,000,000
   Project: The clock is ticking: A longitudinal multi-site study addressing teen sleep as a means to limit depression and anxiety (Grant 227115/Z/23/Z).

      www.sleepchampzzz.com 

•  National Institutes of Health (NIH / NIAAA) (2021–2023) | Co-Investigator | Value: R3,162,356 ($214,834)
   Project: Contribution of sleep disruption to memory impairment and emotion dysregulation in FASD (Grant 1R21AA028597-01A1).

•  National Research Foundation (NRF) CSUR Grant (2019–2021) | Principal Investigator | Value: R1,750,526
   Project: Investigating associations between sleep disruption and emotion regulation in psychopathology (Grant CSRU180504326019).

•  International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA) (2022) | Principal Investigator | Value: R154,700 ($10,000)
   Project: The regulation of emotional drives through dreaming (Grant 45).

•  Medical Research Council (MRC) SIR Grant (2015–2016) | Co-Investigator | Value: R468,935
   Project: Disrupted sleep, memory impairment, and affective dysregulation in PTSD (Grant IRMA 24568).

Selected publications

•  Lipinska, G., Boland, J., Seef, S. E., & Rink, J. A. (2026). Usability, adherence and efficacy of coach-augmented dHealth Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia in South African sexual assault survivors: A pilot study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 17, 1651928.

•  van Wyk, M., Ortscheit, M., Phillips, T. K., van der Walt, P. E., & Lipinska, G. (2026). Resilience as a Protective Factor Against the Exacerbating Effects of Common Psychiatric Comorbidities on Depression. South African Journal of Psychology.

•  Doherty, A., Bucci, S., Kenny, A., Kotov, R., Lipinska, G., Ospina-Pinillos, L., & Schultebraucks, K. (2025). Passive sensing at scale to transform understanding of poor mental health. The Lancet Digital Health, 7(3), e172–e174.

• Lewis, R., Roden, L. C., Scheuermaier, K., Gomez-Olive, F. X., Rae, D. E., Iacovides, S., . . . Lipinska, G. (2021). The impact of sleep, physical activity and sedentary behaviour on symptoms of depression and anxiety before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of South African participants. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 24059. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02021-8.

•  Correia, A. T., Forshaw, P. E., Roden, L. C., Lipinska, G., Rauch, H. L., Lambert, E. V., ... & Rae, D. E. (2024). Associations between fears related to safety during sleep and self-reported sleep in low-socioeconomic settings. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 3609.

•  Lipinska, G., Stuart, B., Thomas, K. G. F., Baldwin, D. S., & Bolinger, E. (2019). Preferential Consolidation of Emotional Memory During Sleep: A Meta-Analysis. Front Psychol, 10(1014). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01014

•  Lipinska, G., & Thomas, K. G. F. (2019). Rapid eye movement fragmentation, not slow-wave sleep, predicts neutral declarative memory consolidation in posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Sleep Research, e12846.

•  Everitt H, Baldwin D.S., Stuart B., Lipinska G., Mayers A., Malizia A.L., Manson C.C.F., & Wilson S. (2018). Antidepressants for insomnia. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010753.pub2