Sleep

A machine learning model trained on brain structural and functional MRI data can identify young and middle-aged men with severe obstructive sleep apnea at 95% sensitivity, according to a new study in Sleep and Breathing. Researchers from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, in collaboration with Oxford University, developed a classifier that integrates gray […]

Writing in a letter published in Geriatrics & Gerontology International, Zezhong Chen and colleagues argue that the predominant focus on individual-level risk factors for poor sleep such as diet, exercise, and sleep hygiene misses the deeper drivers of sleep disparities in aging populations. The authors contend that structural factors including socioeconomic status, neighborhood environment, access […]

More than 64% of migraine sufferers report poor sleep quality, and they are significantly more likely to be evening types than people without headache disorders, according to a nationwide study of 5,311 Polish adults. The link between sleep and headache is well known clinically, but population-level data comparing sleep quality and chronotype across headache subtypes […]

People with an evening chronotype are more likely to delay bedtime, and for women, problematic use of generative AI tools amplifies this effect, according to a survey of 410 adult users. Bedtime procrastination is a growing concern in the digital age, but the role of new generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and image generators […]

A new integrative theory published in Progress in Neurobiology proposes that REM sleep functions as a biological simulation engine, allowing the brain to test and refine synaptic updates before committing them to long-term storage. Sleep scientists have long recognized that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep supports emotional regulation, memory consolidation, and creativity, but a unified […]

Theta-band brain activity in the two seconds before the onset of a sleep slow oscillation can predict both whether the oscillation will occur and how far it will propagate, researchers at the University of Chicago report. Sleep slow oscillations (SOs, ~0.5-1.5 Hz) are a hallmark of deep NREM sleep and are known to play a […]

A molecule called tryptamine, produced by wake-active monoaminergic neurons and secreted in proportion to physical activity, accumulates in cerebrospinal fluid to drive homeostatic sleep pressure and promote sleep through the GPR139 receptor, according to a study in Nature Neuroscience that spans both nocturnal mice and diurnal pigs. The molecular identity of sleep-promoting substances — the […]

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) — one of the most widely used self-report instruments in sleep medicine — faces fundamental conceptual and methodological problems that limit its utility in modern sleep research, according to a critical review in Sleep Medicine Reviews. Since its publication in 1989 by Buysse and colleagues, the PSQI has been […]

A new review in Frontiers in Neurology examines how two NREM sleep rhythms — sleep spindles and high-frequency oscillations (HFOs) — interact in the epileptic brain, and how computational modeling could transform epilepsy diagnosis and treatment. Sleep spindles (11-16 Hz bursts during NREM sleep) are normally involved in memory consolidation and thalamocortical coordination. High-frequency oscillations, […]

Poor sleep quality in insomnia disorder may impair working memory through a two-step neural pathway involving glymphatic dysfunction and disrupted subcortical structure-function coupling, according to a multimodal MRI study of 391 patients published in Psychological Medicine. Working memory deficits are a frequent complaint among people with insomnia, but the underlying brain mechanisms have remained unclear. […]