Sleep

For three decades, researchers have tried to see what the brain does during sleep, not just which electrical rhythms pulse across the scalp, but which deep structures light up and fall silent across the night. The challenge has been technical: electroencephalography (EEG) captures millisecond-scale changes in cortical activity but cannot localize them subcortically, while functional […]

A five-day complete evening smartphone ban significantly improved sleep, cognitive function, and physical performance in university students, but only among those who were not dependent on their devices, according to a study published July 10 in Medicine (Baltimore). The findings suggest that nomophobia (the fear of being without one’s smartphone) is a powerful moderator of […]

Bright, stable, and minimally fragmented patterns of daily light exposure are linked to earlier sleep timing and deeper early-night sleep, according to a naturalistic field study published July 10 in NPJ Biological Timing and Sleep. The study, led by Sena Gulsum Akgun of the Izmir Institute of Technology and the University of Manchester, tracked 89 […]

Study benchmarks inflammation and metabolic markers for 5-year mortality prediction in sleep apnea Obstructive sleep apnea is linked to higher cardiovascular and all-cause mortality, but identifying which patients face the greatest risk remains a clinical challenge. In a study published July 10 in the Journal of Translational Medicine, researchers led by Jian Liu and corresponding […]

Lead. The glymphatic system, the brain’s dedicated waste clearance network, is emerging as a central player in neurodegenerative disease. A comprehensive new review in Current Opinion in Pharmacology consolidates evidence that glymphatic dysfunction is not merely a bystander but a mechanistic driver in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and Huntington’s disease (HD). The authors, […]

Lead. People with idiopathic REM sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) are known to face a sharply elevated risk of developing Parkinson disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. But whether iRBD itself causes that neurodegeneration or simply shares common roots has been a stubborn open question. A new genetic epidemiology study now offers the strongest causal evidence to […]

The CB1 Receptor as a Convergence Hub Linking Stress, Sleep and Appetite A new conceptual review proposes that the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1) acts as a central convergence point where stress, sleep, and appetite regulation intersect, offering a unifying neurobiological framework for understanding how these systems influence one another. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) has […]

A new study using intensive daily sampling over one week shows that day-to-day fluctuations in emotions directly predict how well emerging adults sleep the following night. Researchers from the University of Lausanne and the University of Fribourg followed 166 first-year psychology students aged 18 to 24 over seven consecutive days, administering four surveys per day […]

Alzheimer’s disease disrupts deep sleep and gamma-band brain activity months before any measurable cognitive decline, according to a new preprint from researchers at VA Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School. The study pinpoints two electrophysiological markers that could one day serve as early intervention targets: slow-wave power during NREM sleep and 40-Hz auditory responses […]

An editorial published in the July 2026 issue of Chest takes a closer look at what CPAP therapy can offer patients carrying the dual burden of insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. Writing under the title “More Than Just Improved Sleep: Impact of CPAP on Patients With Comorbidity Between Insomnia and OSA,” the editorial argues that […]