Current Sleep Medicine Reports

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Several studies have found that medical students have a significant prevalence of sleep issues, such as poor sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and inadequate sleep duration. The purpose of this review is to carefully evaluate the current research on sleep problems among medical students and, as a result, estimate the prevalence of these disturbances. The EMBASE, PsychINFO, PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science and retrieved article reference lists were rigorously searched and rated for quality...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Sleep disturbance is common in TD. However, our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms involved is preliminary. This review summarizes findings from neuroimaging, genetic, and animal studies to elucidate potential underlying mechanisms of sleep disruption in TD. RECENT FINDINGS: Preliminary neuroimaging research indicates increased activity in the premotor cortex, and decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex is associated with NREM sleep in TD...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To provide a brief overview of current objective measures of hypersomnolence, discuss proposed measure modifications, and review emerging measures. RECENT FINDINGS: There is potential to optimize current tools using novel metrics. High-density and quantitative EEG-based measures may provide discriminative informative. Cognitive testing may quantify cognitive dysfunction common to hypersomnia disorders, particularly in attention, and objectively measure pathologic sleep inertia...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Sleep is an essential human behavior that plays a key role in proper biopsychosocial development as well as short- and long-term biological, physical, psychological, and cognitive health. Sleep plays a key role in athletic performance, influencing an athlete's ability to train, recover, and perform, as well as their overall wellness. Over the recent decade, the awareness of sleep's import has penetrated just about every professional sport domain. The purpose of the review was to identify and synthesize the literature published within the past 5 years (2018-2022) that relates to sleep and performance in professional athletes...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Kleine-Levin syndrome (KLS) is a rare relapsing-remitting sleep disorder distinguished by recurrent periods of severe hypersomnia accompanied by cognitive, mood, and behavioral changes. This review focuses mainly on the most recent developments and articles concerning this illness in the preceding five years while attempting to provide a basic overview of KLS. RECENT FINDINGS: Genetic links were reported in some patients with KLS, like variation in TRANK1 in a worldwide case-control genome-wide association in patients with KLS, in addition to several uncommon variations in the LMOD3 gene, some of which are likely to be pathogenic, discovered by linkage analysis and exome sequencing in a sizable Saudi Arabian family with KLS and a European cohort of KLS patients...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Antiretroviral therapy has significantly reduced morbidity and mortality in people with HIV. Despite being virally suppressed, sleep disturbances, chronic pain, and neurocognitive impairments persist which can negatively impact quality of life for people with HIV. This article presents relevant literature related to sleep disturbances and chronic pain in people with HIV. The potential impact of these comorbidities on cognition is discussed with implications for managing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND)...

Purpose of Review: Suicide is currently the second leading cause of death among youth. Identification of modifiable near-term risk factors can inform suicide prevention strategies. One promising, readily assessed factor is sleep. We critically review the literature on sleep and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among youth. Recent Findings: Most studies examining the youth sleep-suicidality relationship are from epidemiological samples in which both sleep problems and suicidality were assessed over variable timeframes using limited items from scales not designed to measure these constructs...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Sleep problems are a common comorbidity for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and research in this area has a relatively long history. Within this review, we first outline historic patterns in the field of sleep and ASD. Second, we conducted a systematic update and coded these studies based on their alignment with historic patterns. Research on ASD and sleep over the past two decades has primarily focused on four principal areas: (1) documenting the prevalence and types of sleep problems; (2) sleep problem treatment options and efficacy; (3) how sleep problems are associated with other behavioral, contextual, or biological elements; and (4) the impact of child sleep problems on families and care providers...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Central nervous system (CNS) hypersomnias can be triggered by external factors, such as infection or as a response to vaccination. The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which was caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), led to a worldwide effort to quickly develop a vaccine to contain the pandemic and reduce morbidity and mortality. This narrative review is focused on the literature published in the past 2 years and provides an update on current knowledge in respect of the triggering of CNS hypersomnias by infection per se , vaccination, and circadian rhythm alterations caused by social isolation, lockdown, and quarantine...

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: In this review, we will discuss commonly encountered pediatric sleep disorders, their clinical presentations, evaluation, and management. RECENT FINDINGS: Sleep problems are common complaints in the pediatric population with an estimated prevalence of at least 25%. This review examines frequently seen pediatric sleep disorders including insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, hypersomnolence, circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, parasomnias, and movement disorders...

The following review is designed to explore the pathophysiology of sleep apnea in aging women. The review initially introduces four endotypes (i.e., a more collapsible airway, upper airway muscle responsiveness, arousal threshold, and loop gain) that may have a role in the initiation of obstructive sleep apnea. Thereafter, sex differences in the prevalence of sleep apnea are considered along with differences in the prevalence that exist between younger and older women. Following this discussion, we consider how each endotype might contribute to the increase in prevalence of sleep apnea in aging women...

Purpose of Review: People with isolated REM (rapid eye movement) sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) have a high lifetime risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease, including dementia, but disclosure of this risk remains controversial. Herein, we summarize this controversy and provide guidance on disclosure. Recent Findings: Neurodegeneration risk disclosure in iRBD is controversial because of a long latency to disease onset and a lack of preventative strategies...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: I review the current status of the hypothesis that sleep is critically involved in memory consolidation and conclude that there are major methodological problems with the studies used to support this hypothesis. RECENT FINDINGS: Memory consolidation is similar in quiet waking and sleep (Humiston GB, Tucker MA, Summer T, Wamsley EJ. Sci Rep 18;9(1):19345, 2019), and suppression of REM sleep for long periods is compatible with learning and highly adaptive behavior (Lyamin OI, Korneva SM, Obukhova ED, Mukhametov LM, Siegel JM...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review summarizes recent literature on the heritability of sleep and sleep disorders in childhood and adolescence. We also identify gaps in the literature and priorities for future research. RECENT FINDINGS: Findings indicate that age, measurement method, reporter, and timing of sleep measurements can influence heritability estimates. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified differences in the heritability of sleep problems when ancestral differences are considered, but sample sizes are small compared to adult GWAS...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Response to cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is variable across individuals, and specialty insomnia clinics that provide CBT-I are few. To personalize insomnia treatments and maximize the cost-effectiveness of CBT-I, this paper reviews the conceptual model and content of CBT-I and the predictors of adherence/response to CBT-I as the basis for understanding who is most likely to benefit from CBT-I. RECENT FINDINGS: Specific patient-related attributes that predict benefit from CBT-I include (1) presence of maladaptive behaviors that serve as perpetuating factors of insomnia; (2) greater motivation to pursue therapy and higher treatment expectancies regarding CBT-I; (3) reduced use of hypnotics; (4) longer sleep duration; and (5) adequately treated psychiatric comorbidities...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Auditory stimulation is a technique that can enhance neural oscillations linked to overnight memory consolidation. In this review, we evaluate the impacts of auditory stimulation on the neural oscillations of sleep and associated memory processes in a variety of populations. RECENT FINDINGS: Cortical EEG recordings of slow-wave sleep (SWS) are characterised by two cardinal oscillations: slow oscillations (SOs) and sleep spindles. Auditory stimulation delivered in SWS enhances SOs and phase-coupled spindle activity in healthy children and adults, children with ADHD, adults with mild cognitive impairment and patients with major depression...

Purpose of review: Napping is a common behavior across age groups. While studies have shown a benefit of overnight sleep on memory consolidation, given differences in nap frequency, composition, and intent, it is important to consider whether naps serve a memory function across development and aging. Recent findings: We review studies of the role of naps in declarative, emotional, and motor procedural memory consolidation across age groups. Recent findings in both developmental and aging populations find that naps benefit learning of many tasks but may require additional learning or sleep bouts compared to young adult populations...

Purpose of review: To present an up-to-date review and synthesis of findings about perinatal sleep development and function. I discuss landmark events in sleep ontogenesis, evidence that sleep promotes brain development and plasticity, and experimental considerations in this topic. Recent findings: Mammalian sleep undergoes dramatic changes in expression and regulation during perinatal development. This includes a progressive decrease in rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep time, corresponding increases in nonREM sleep and wake time, and the appearance of mature sleep regulatory processes (homeostatic and circadian)...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Daytime napping-frequently reported among older populations-has attracted increasing attention in geriatric research due to its association with multiple health conditions. This review aims to integrate the latest knowledge about napping in older adults to provide implications for future research. RECENT FINDINGS: The prevalence of napping in older adults ranges from 20% to 60% in different studies, but has been consistently reported to be higher than in other age groups...

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Skin disease is associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) both epidemiologically and mechanistically. In this review we highlight conditions which have a well-established link to obstructive sleep apnea, such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. RECENT FINDINGS: We describe putative mechanistic links between OSA and skin disease involving inflammatory pathways, obesity, mechanical upper airways obstruction, and hypoxia. In the context of these mechanisms we describe specific skin conditions, and other conditions which are associated with both skin manifestations (including hair/nail findings) and OSA...