Pilleriin has a background in psychology and neuroscience. In her research, she strives to bridge the fields of consciousness research, sleep and dream research, emotion research, and well-being research. She explores the nature, dynamics, (psychological and neural) mechanisms, and impact of experiences that occur across different states of consciousness— from wakefulness to normal sleep and dreaming, to anesthesia dreaming, and to psychedelic experiences. She is particularly interested in the therapeutic potential of transformative experiences, such as anesthesia-induced dream states and psychedelic experiences.