Craig Thomas

Biography

Craig graduated with first class honours in Sport and Exercise Science from Nottingham Trent University. During this time he also completed internships in performance analysis at Burton Albion FC and Derby County FC. These experiences led to him filling a full-time position at Stoke City FC as assistant first team performance analyst while successfully completing a part-time MRes in Sport Science at Nottingham Trent University. In 2016, Craig was accepted onto the LJMU PhD scholarship scheme for his proposed research in sleep. Outside of his PhD, Craig is a member of the Dockside running club and enjoys half marathon running.

PhD project title

Effect of exercise on sleep quality in an athletic population

PhD supervisors

Dr. Julien Louis, Prof. Helen Jones and Dr. Craig Whitworth-Turner

Project description

Craig’s PhD project is investigating the relationship between exercise and sleep quality in well trained populations, including sub-elite and elite athletes. He is studying the interaction between exercise intensity, exercise frequency and sleep quality to test the hypothesis that sleep has an important role in recovery from strenuous training and competition. Craig uses various methodologies to measure sleep, such as: questionnaires, wristwatch actigraphy and the gold standard technique, laboratory based polysomnography. Craig also works with doctors from the field of sleep medicine at Aintree hospital to further his understanding of sleep physiology and to ensure quality control during polysomnography monitoring.

Degrees

2015, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom, MRes Sport Science
2013, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom, BSc (H) Sport and Exercise Science