Sleep Medicine
![Attribution: Alpha Stock Images - http://alphastockimages.com/ Original Author: Nick Youngson - link to - http://www.nyphotographic.com/](/ph/images/sleep-apnea.jpg)
Sleep Med Clin: Latest results from PubMed
-
The Future Is Now
No abstract -
Intermittent Hypoxia as a Model of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Present and Future
Intermittent hypoxia (IH) is an extremely frequent condition characterized by recurrent episodes of reduced oxygen levels interspersed with periods of normoxia, often seen in conditions like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and lung diseases. Among OSA patients, IH occurs due to periodic airway obstructions during sleep, leading to transient drops in blood oxygen saturation followed by reoxygenation. Future directions involve standardizing IH protocols, incorporating patient variability into the IH... -
Artificial Intelligence Can Drive Sleep Medicine
This article explores the transformative role of artificial intelligence (AI) in sleep medicine, highlighting its applications in detecting sleep microstructure patterns and integrating novel metrics. AI enhances diagnostic accuracy and objectivity, addressing inter-rater variability. AI also facilitates the classification of sleep disorders and the prediction of health outcomes. AI can drive sleep medicine to achieve deeper insights into sleep's impact on health, leading to personalized... -
Sleep Away from Earth
This article summarizes the studies that have been done in space to date, the challenges associated with sleeping in space, contributors to circadian misalignment, what is known about sleep disorders in space, and discussion of new sleep and circadian issues that may arise as more humans travel to space and embark on missions farther from Earth. -
Brain Health in Sleep Disorders
Sleep is a critical determinant of brain health, influencing cognitive, emotional, and physiologic functions. The complex bidirectional relationship between sleep and brain health underscores the importance of sleep in maintaining cognitive function, regulating brain homeostasis, and facilitating the clearance of metabolic waste through the glymphatic system. Chronic sleep deprivation and sleep disorders such as insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea have been shown to negatively impact brain... -
Emerging Technologies to Track and Improve Sleep Health
This review explores cutting-edge advancements, including wearable sleep trackers, brain age assessments, transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), acoustic stimulation, and glymphatic system modulation. Sleep trackers provide continuous monitoring of sleep patterns, while brain age estimation offers insights into brain health and early detection of accelerated aging. TES shows promise in improving mood, memory, and sleep. Acoustic stimulation during slow-wave sleep has been demonstrated to... -
Evaluation of Sleep Quality in Clinical Practice
A major problem in clinical sleep medicine is that the most comprehensive and sophisticated investigative tool, the polysomnography, fails to provide a reason for the patient's complaints in all but those with sleep apnea and movement disorders. The reasons why conventional metrics of sleep quality are of limited value are discussed in detail. This is followed by description of several well-established features that have not been implemented in clinical practice because of the impracticality of... -
Sleep Phylogeny: Have We Jumped the Shark?
Sleep is considered to be ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. Scientists in part believe this because sleep is increasingly defined solely by behavioral measures. This has resulted in an astonishing expansion of species reported to sleep. But have we gone too far? Have scientists jumped the shark? This idiom refers to when an idea has exhausted its core intent and creates ideas that are discordant with its original purpose. In this commentary, I discuss what I see as an emerging problem in how we... -
Future of Sleep Medicine: Novel Insights on Sleep Regulation from Network Physiology (Part II)
The authors review recent progress in understanding fundamental aspects of physiologic regulation during wake and sleep based on modern data-driven, analytic, and computational approaches with focus on the complex dynamics of physiologic systems interactions, their coexisting and transient forms of coupling, and the role of network integration among physiologic systems in generating states and functions at the organism level. They underscore the importance of novel network-based integrative... -
Future of Sleep Medicine: Novel Approaches and Measures Derived from Physiologic Systems Dynamics (Part I)
We review recent progress in understanding fundamental aspects of physiologic regulation during wake and sleep based on modern data-driven, analytical, and computational approaches with a focus on the complex dynamics of individual physiologic systems. The presented empirical findings indicate that sleep-wake and circadian cycles do not simply modulate basic physiologic functions but influence physiologic systems dynamics simultaneously over a broad range of time scales. The reviewed empirical... -
Developing a Personalized Approach to Obstructive Sleep Apnea
All areas of medicine are focused on developing a personalized approach to diagnosis and treatment of specific conditions. This is based on the fundamental concept that all subjects with apparently the same disorder are different. There are multiple reasons for these differences. These include differences in the sequence of DNA, differences in the environment, differences in epigenetics, some of which may be driven by environmental differences and differences in the microbiome. These different... -
Multimodal Treatment of Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common condition linked with multiple comorbidities. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices, though the gold standard for OSA treatment, often do not address the entirety of the disorder. Various treatment strategies exist to address OSA beyond CPAP, each targeting different OSA aspects. These include managing comorbid sleep disorders, anatomic considerations, endotype-directed therapy, and lifestyle interventions. These comprehensive approaches aim... -
Treatable Traits-Based Pharmacologic Treatment of Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a heterogeneous condition characterized by diverse endotypic traits and clinical phenotypes. A recent randomized controlled trial evaluating a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist showed promising results, potentially making it the first on-label drug treatment for OSA. Phase II/III clinical trials investigating combinations of noradrenergic and antimuscarinic agents, as well as carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, are ongoing. Future drug treatments for OSA,... -
The Past and Future of Sleep Medicine
The past of sleep medicine is rich with seminal discoveries, from the recognition of clinical syndromes to measurement of sleep itself to classic and novel therapeutics. Advances in neurobiology have mapped a number of sleep circuits, described the central and peripheral circadian system, and identified the cause of narcolepsy with cataplexy. Sleep apnea endotypes and phenotypes now have established clinical relevance, though treatment implications are a work in progress. Artificial intelligence... -
Sleep Deficiency and Health
No abstract -
Sleep Deficiency in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Sleep deficiency in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) includes abnormal quality, timing and duration of sleep, and the presence of other comorbid conditions. These include insomnia, circadian misalignment disorders, and periodic limb movements of sleep, among others. The co-occurrence of these conditions with OSA likely plays a role in pathogenesis, clinical presentation, and management of OSA. Considering these conditions and their treatment in evaluating sleep deficiency in OSA may... -
Sleep Deficiency, Sleep Apnea, and Chronic Lung Disease
With sleep occupying up to one-third of every adult's life, addressing sleep is essential to overall health. Sleep disturbance and deficiency are common in patients with chronic lung diseases and associated with worse clinical outcomes and poor quality of life. A detailed history incorporating nocturnal respiratory symptoms, symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and restless legs syndrome, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and medications is the first step in identifying and addressing the... -
Sleep Deficiency and Cardiometabolic Disease
Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of cardio-metabolic health outcomes including cardiovascular disease mortality, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. Experimental sleep restriction studies have sought to explain these findings. This review describes the main evidence of these associations and possible mechanisms explaining them. Whether sleep extension reverses these now... -
Effects of Sleep Deficiency on Risk, Course, and Treatment of Psychopathology
This article reviews the literature on the relationship between sleep deficiency and unipolar and bipolar depression, anxiety disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder. We consider the evidence for sleep as a contributory causal factor in the development of psychiatric disorders, as well as sleep as an influential factor related to the outcome and recurrence of psychopathology. A case for sleep deficiency being an important treatment target when sleep and psychiatric disorders are comorbid is... -
Sleep Deficiency and Opioid Use Disorder: Trajectory, Mechanisms, and Interventions
Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic and relapsing brain disease characterized by loss of control over opioid use and impairments in cognitive function, mood, pain perception, and autonomic activity. Sleep deficiency, a term that encompasses insufficient or disrupted sleep due to multiple potential causes, including sleep disorders (eg, insomnia, sleep apnea), circadian disruption (eg, delayed sleep phase and social jet lag), and poor sleep quality (eg, sleep fragmentation, impaired sleep... -
Adding Insult to Injury: Sleep Deficiency in Hospitalized Patients
Sleep deficiency is a common problem in the hospital setting. Contributing factors include preexisting medical conditions, illness severity, the hospital environment, and treatment-related effects. Hospitalized patients are particularly vulnerable to the negative health effects of sleep deficiency that impact multiple organ systems. Objective sleep measurement is difficult to achieve in the hospital setting, posing a barrier to linking improvements in hospital outcomes with sleep promotion... -
Sleep Deficiency in the Elderly
With aging, there are normative changes to sleep physiology and circadian rhythmicity that may predispose older adults to sleep deficiency, whereas many health-related and psychosocial/behavioral factors may precipitate sleep deficiency. In this article, we describe age-related changes to sleep and describe how the health-related and psychosocial/behavioral factors typical of aging may converge in older adults to increase the risk for sleep deficiency. Next, we review the consequences of sleep... -
Sleep Deficiency in Pregnancy
Sleep is important for overall health of a person. It is always recommended that an adult should sleep for not less than 7 to 9 hours every day. However, there are a lot of adults who experience sleep deprivation, out of them mostly are women. Sleep deprivation can lead to a lot of health issues, including mortality risk, impaired metabolism, imbalance in cognitive function, and the overall quality of life. Women often face more difficulties falling asleep as compared to men, leading to greater... -
Work Around the Clock: How Work Hours Induce Social Jetlag and Sleep Deficiency
A growing body of evidence has placed an increasing emphasis on how sleep affects health. Not only does insufficient sleep make one subjectively feel worse, but is associated with chronic diseases that are considered epidemics in industrialized nations. This is partly caused by the growing need for prolonged work and social schedules, exemplified by shift work, late-night weekends, and early morning work/school start times (social jetlag). Here, we consider fundamental relationships between the... -
Sleep Deficiency in Adolescents: The School Start Time Debate
Adolescence is commonly accepted as a challenging time for sleep, with multiple factors contributing to sleep deficiency in adolescents. These include physiologic changes with shifts in their circadian rhythm; medical sleep disorders; and social, cultural, and environmental factors. Early school start times negatively affect sleep in adolescents as well, with poorer outcomes in their overall health, wellbeing, and performance. This article highlights the different contributing factors for sleep... -
Sleep Deficiency in Young Children
There is growing public health concern about the high prevalence of sleep deficiency in early childhood and the associated risk for sleep-associated poor health outcomes, including metabolic, cardiovascular, and mental health. The recent shift to conceptualize sleep health as a multidimensional construct, influenced by socioecological factors, highlights the potential role of sleep in health disparities. Understanding the development of sleep health and the emergence of sleep disorders in early... -
Sleep Deficiency: A Symptoms Perspective: Exemplars from Chronic Heart Failure, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and Breast Cancer
Sleep deficiency is associated with disabling daytime symptoms, including excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and fatigue. The purpose of this article is to discuss the contributions of sleep deficiency and sleep disorders to fatigue and EDS among people with chronic conditions. We use exemplars from the literature on chronic heart failure, inflammatory bowel disease, and breast cancer to (1) describe the prevalence of fatigue and EDS and their consequences; (2) examine the evidence for the... -
The Need for Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Research to Understand and Intervene on Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) disorder, affects at least 25 million adults in the United States and is associated with increased risk for hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Racial/ethnic minorities have a disproportionate burden of OSA along with the health sequelae associated with this condition. Despite supporting evidence of racial/ethnic disparities, few studies have investigated SDB including OSA among minoritized racial/ethnic... -
Sleep Deficiency: Epidemiology and Effects
Adequate sleep is an important pillar of physical and mental health. Sleep deficiency, resulting from short sleep or suboptimal sleep quality, is highly prevalent in modern society. Occupation, social demands, psychiatric disorders, physical disorders, and sleep disorders are some of the contributing factors to sleep deficiency. Some populations are at increased risk of sleep deficiency based on ethnicity, age, marital status, sex, and hospitalization. Sleep deficiency influences cognition,... -
Updates on Chronic Respiratory Failure and Noninvasive Respiratory Support: Innovations and Insights
No abstract -
Palliative Care and Noninvasive Ventilation
Palliative care is important for many patients who require noninvasive ventilation. The particular needs of patients with neuromuscular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are explored. Advance care planning is explored with tips for undertaking this important communication task. Brief comments regarding symptom burden, weaning, voluntary assisted dying, and self-care are included. -
Airway Clearance in Neuromuscular Disease
High-quality respiratory care and airway clearance is essential for people with neuromuscular disease (pwNMD) as respiratory tract infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality. This review expands on published guidelines by highlighting the role of cough peak flow along with other options for cough evaluation, and discusses recent key research findings which have influenced the practice of respiratory therapy for pwNMD. -
Impact of Disease-modifying Therapies on Respiratory Function in People with Neuromuscular Disorders
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are neuromuscular disorders that affect muscular function. The most common causes of morbidity and mortality are respiratory complications, including restrictive lung disease, ineffective cough, and sleep-disordered breathing. The paradigm of care is changing as new disease-modifying therapies are altering disease trajectory, outcomes, expectations, as well as patient and caregiver experiences. This article provides an overview... -
The Role of High Flow Nasal Therapy in Chronic Respiratory Failure
High-flow nasal therapy (HFNT) has an increasing role in the management of acute hypoxic respiratory failure. Due to its tolerable interface and ease of use, its role in chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (CHRF) is emerging. This article examines the literature to date surrounding the short and long-term mechanisms of HFNT in sleep and wakefulness of CHRF patients. It is likely HFNT will have an increasing role in those patients intolerant of non-invasive ventilation. -
Telemonitoring in Non-invasive Ventilation
Telemonitoring in non-invasive ventilation is constantly evolving to enable follow-up of adults and children. Depending on the device and manufacturer, different ventilator variables are displayed on web-based platforms. However, high-granularity measurement is not always available remotely, which precludes breath-by-breath waveforms and precise monitoring of nocturnal gas exchange. Therefore, telemonitoring is mainly useful for monitoring utilization of the device, leaks, and respiratory... -
Interfaces for Home Noninvasive Ventilation
The choice of interface used to deliver noninvasive ventilation (NIV) is a critical element in successfully and safely establishing home NIV in people with sleep hypoventilation syndromes. Both patient-related and equipment-related factors need to be considered when selecting an interface. Recognizing specific issues that can occur with a particular style of mask is important when troubleshooting NIV problems and attempting to minimize side effects. Access to a range of mask styles and designs... -
Initiation of Chronic Non-invasive Ventilation
Initiation of home non-invasive ventilation (NIV) requires careful consideration of the patient's condition, motivation, expectations, wishes, and social circumstances. The decision to start NIV depends on a combination of factors including patient symptoms and objective evidence of nocturnal hypoventilation. A solid understanding of the underlying pathophysiology is key to a systematic and well-balanced clinical approach to titrating NIV. The location where NIV is initiated is not the most... -
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Overlap Syndrome: An Update on the Epidemiology, Pathophysiology, and Management
This review provides an up-to-date summary of the prevalence, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) overlap syndrome (OVS). The presence of OVS is high in patients with COPD and in patients with OSA and is associated with profound nocturnal oxygen desaturation and systemic inflammation. There is a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease among patients with OVS and this likely contributes to increased... -
Assessment of Chronic Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure
Undiagnosed chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure may be encountered during the evaluation of sleep-related breathing disorders at the sleep clinic. This article reviews the mechanism of chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure and the systematic approach to the assessment of specific sleep disorders associated with nocturnal hypoventilation encountered in clinical practice. -
Pathophysiology of Chronic Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure
Chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure occurs in several conditions associated with hypoventilation. The mechanisms underlying the development of chronic hypercapnia include a combination of processes that increase metabolic CO(2) production, reduce minute ventilation (V'e), or increase dead space fraction (Vd/Vt). Fundamental to the pathophysiology is a mismatch between increased load and a reduction in the capacity of the respiratory pump to compensate. Though neural respiratory drive may be... -
How Important Is it to Address Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Patients with Chronic Lung Disease?
No abstract -
Dyspnea and Quality of Life Improvements with Management of Comorbid Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Chronic Lung Disease
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has emerged as a significant and prevalent comorbidity associated with chronic lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and interstitial lung diseases. These overlap syndromes are associated with worse patient-reported outcomes (sleep quality, quality of life measures, mental health) than each condition independently. Observational studies suggest that patients with overlap syndrome who are adherent to positive airway pressure therapy... -
Targeting Hypercapnia in Chronic Lung Disease and Obesity Hypoventilation: Benefits and Challenges
Hypoventilation is a complication that is not uncommon in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and calls for both medical treatment of the underlying disease and, frequently, noninvasive ventilation either during exacerbations requiring hospitalization or in a chronic state in the patient at home. Obesity hypoventilation syndrome by definition is associated with ventilatory failure and hypercapnia. It may or may not be accompanied by obstructive sleep apnea, which when detected becomes an... -
The Role of Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure Identified in Critical Care, Inpatient, and Outpatient Settings
An emerging body of literature describes the prevalence and consequences of hypercapnic respiratory failure. While device qualifications, documentation practices, and previously performed clinical studies often encourage conceptualizing patients as having a single "cause" of hypercapnia, many patients encountered in practice have several contributing conditions. Physiologic and epidemiologic data suggest that sleep-disordered breathing-particularly obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)-often contributes... -
Intermittent Versus Sustained Hypoxemia from Sleep-disordered Breathing: Outcomes in Patients with Chronic Lung Disease and High Altitude
In a variety of physiologic and pathologic states, people may experience both chronic sustained hypoxemia and intermittent hypoxemia ("combined" or "overlap" hypoxemia). In general, hypoxemia in such instances predicts a variety of maladaptive outcomes, including excess cardiovascular disease or mortality. However, hypoxemia may be one of the myriad phenotypic effects in such states, making it difficult to ascertain whether adverse outcomes are primarily driven by hypoxemia, and if so, whether... -
Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome, and Pulmonary Hypertension: A State-of-the-Art Review
The pathophysiological interplay between sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and pulmonary hypertension (PH) is complex and can involve a variety of mechanisms by which SDB can worsen PH. These mechanistic pathways include wide swings in intrathoracic pressure while breathing against an occluded upper airway, intermittent and/or sustained hypoxemia, acute and/or chronic hypercapnia, and obesity. In this review, we discuss how the downstream consequences of SDB can adversely impact PH, the... -
Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Sarcoidosis Interactions
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is very prevalent in sarcoidosis patients. Sarcoidosis of the upper respiratory tract may affect upper airway patency and increase the risk of OSA. Weight gain due to steroid use, upper airway myopathy due to steroids and sarcoidosis itself, and interstitial lung disease with decreased upper airway patency are other reasons for the higher OSA prevalence seen in sarcoidosis. Several clinical manifestations such as fatigue, hypersomnolence, cognitive deficits, and... -
Untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Interstitial Lung Disease and Impact on Interstitial Lung Disease Outcomes
Subjects with interstitial lung disease (ILD) often suffer from nocturnal cough, insomnia, and poor sleep quality. Subjects with ILD and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) seem to have relatively mild symptoms from sleep fragmentation compared to subjects with only ILD. The overlap of ILD, OSA, and sleeping hypoxemia may be associated with poor outcome, even though there is no agreement on which sleep parameter is mostly associated with worsening ILD prognosis. Randomized controlled trials are needed... -
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Effects on Chronic Airway Disease Exacerbations-Missed Opportunities for Improving Outcomes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Asthma
In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, exacerbations determine the natural history of both diseases. Patients with both respiratory diseases who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as a comorbidity (overlap syndromes) have a higher risk of exacerbations and hospitalization. In cases of OSA/COPD and OSA/asthma, continuous positive airway pressure treatment is indicated. Adequate adherence to therapy appears to reduce exacerbations and their severity,... -
Contribution of Obstructive Sleep Apnea to Asthmatic Airway Inflammation and Impact of Its Treatment on the Course of Asthma
Asthma and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are very common respiratory disorders in the general population. Beyond their high prevalence, shared risk factors, and genetic linkages, bidirectional relationships between asthma and OSA exist, each disorder affecting the other's presence and severity. The author reviews here some of the salient links between constituents of the alternative overlap syndrome, that is, OSA comorbid with asthma, with an emphasis on the effects of OSA or its treatment on...