Dr. David O'Regan

Consultant Psychiatrist and Sleep Medicine specialist at the Sleep Disorders Centre, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. My clinical-academic work focuses on insomnia, NREM parasomnias, sleep neuropsychiatry, and sleep disorders in adults with intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental conditions. I have an established record of postgraduate teaching and supervision at King’s College London, research translation, national educational leadership, guideline development, and public engagement. I held an Honorary Senior Lectureship at King’s College London from November 2020 to October 2025 and am applying for renewal. I am a Visiting MRCPsych Lecturer at University College London and Immediate Past President of the Royal Society of Medicine Sleep Medicine Section (2022–2024).

• General Medical Council (registration: 6163116)
• Royal College of Psychiatrists
• Royal Society of Medicine (immediate past Section President)
• British Sleep Society
• American Academy of Sleep Medicine

• Established the UK’s first dedicated adult Sleep and Learning Disability clinic at Guy’s Hospital in March 2026, providing adapted diagnostic and treatment pathways for adults with intellectual disability and neurodevelopmental disorders.
• Developed psychiatric sleep medicine at Guy’s as a tertiary clinical resource for complex insomnia, parasomnias, hypersomnolence and psychiatric comorbidity.
• Immediate Past President, Royal Society of Medicine Sleep Medicine Section (2022–2024). Planned, convened and chaired six national whole-day hybrid educational meetings involving psychiatry, neurology, respiratory medicine and primary care.
• Co-organiser and co-lead, UK Down Syndrome and Sleep Research Network (2025–present).
• Member, British Association for Psychopharmacology Sleep Guideline Panel (2025–present).
• Sleep editor, Royal College of General Practitioners e-learning module on insomnia.
• Member, inaugural KCATO REACH cohort, supporting clinical-academic leadership development within King’s Health Partners.
• Advisory-board member: Redefining Education in Sleep Training; TIMES trial on sleep in cognitive impairment and dementia; MRC Circadian Health Network.

My research addresses clinically useful, evidence-based interventions and diagnostic pathways for complex sleep disorders, particularly at the interface of psychiatry, neurodevelopmental conditions and intellectual disability.

• Designed, delivered and published the world’s first group cognitive behavioural therapy programme for adult NREM parasomnias, including sleep-walking, providing a reproducible non-pharmacological treatment model with sustained longer-term outcomes.
• Co-led research demonstrating the feasibility and acceptability of AcuPebble home sleep testing for obstructive sleep apnoea in adults with intellectual disability, informing the diagnostic pathway for the Sleep and Learning Disability clinic.
• UK principal investigator for a retrospective, non-interventional multicentre study of daridorexant in insomnia disorder with comorbid anxiety and/or depression.
• Led a UK case series of daridorexant in people with intellectual disability and complex treatment-resistant sleep disorders (submitted 2026).
• Co-designed an electronic algorithm for assessment and management of chronic insomnia disorder in primary care, incorporating stepped-care CBT-I and referral triggers.
• Co-investigator and collaborator in research on sleep in cognitive impairment and dementia, circadian health, head trauma and future REM sleep behaviour disorder.

Research metrics

Google Scholar, accessed 26 September 2026:

• 1,122 citations
• h-index: 15
• i10-index: 21
• 30+ peer-reviewed publications
• Full publication record: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3809-022X

King’s College London and King’s Health Partners

• Regular KCL teaching since 2017, including lectures, seminars and case-based teaching in sleep medicine and neuropsychiatry.
• Teaching on the MSc Clinical Neurosciences course.
• Supervisor of KCL MSc and PhD projects; first sleep-medicine PhD student successfully passed her viva in March 2026.
• Supervision of psychiatry higher trainees undertaking sleep-medicine specialist-interest sessions at Guy’s Hospital.

Wider teaching

• Visiting MRCPsych Lecturer, University College London; teaching in sleep psychiatry to trainees preparing for MRCPsych examinations.
• Lecturer, CBT-I Masterclass, University College London Hospitals.
• Invited lecturer/symposium contributor: Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress; British Sleep Society Biennial Meeting; Spanish Sleep Society Biennial Meeting; European Association of Mental Health in Intellectual Disabilities Congress; Edinburgh Sleep Medicine Course; UK Clinical Update Sleep Congress; Imperial College/Nanyang Technological University Sleep Workshop; British Association for Psychopharmacology Anxiety and Sleep Masterclass.
• Supervisor and mentor for visiting consultants, psychologists, therapists, clinical observers and multidisciplinary colleagues.

• Narcolepsy UK: national patient-conference presentation on using CBT techniques to improve narcolepsy.
• Royal Society of Medicine Medicine and Me: presentation on managing automatic behaviours for patients and carers living with narcolepsy.
• National Migraine Centre Head’s Up podcast: sleep and headache.
• Medical Protection Society podcast: sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Practitioner Health Programme: management of insomnia in doctors.
• British Association of Specialists in Headache: management of co-morbid sleep problems for GPs with a specialist interest in headache.