Rajani Khanal is a dedicated sleep scientist and PhD candidate at Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI), Flinders University. Her research focuses on the intersection of sleep health and age-related physical function decline, particularly investigating the impact of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) on sarcopenia, falls, and body composition in older adults.

Rajani holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering and has published and presented research in both sleep medicine and aging. She is the recipient of the ResMed Foundation Clinical Research Scholarship (2023–2025), supporting her doctoral work on sleep-disordered breathing and its role in musculoskeletal decline.

Rajani’s PhD explores how obstructive sleep apnea contributes to age-related declines in muscle health, physical function, and body composition using large-scale epidemiological and digital sleep monitoring data.

In addition to her academic work, Rajani brings over five years of clinical expertise as an accredited Clinical Sleep Physiologist. She has served as Senior Sleep Technician and Deputy Lab Manager at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where she led daily operations, trained staff, ensured compliance with accreditation standards, and drove innovation in sleep diagnostics and patient care.

Rajani has presented at national conferences, including the Australasian Sleep Association (ASA), and regularly participates in professional development through the Australia and New Zealand Society for Sarcopenia and Frailty Research (ANZSSFR).

Her broader goal is to advance translational sleep research that bridges clinical operations with epidemiological evidence to inform early intervention strategies for preserving physical function and independence in older adults. She is particularly passionate about using population-based data and digital health tools to understand the long-term consequences of untreated sleep disorders.