Revolutionizing Sleep Health: The Promise and Challenges of Digital Phenotyping

Abstract

Sleep disorders, a critical issue in global health, affect millions worldwide. Disorders ranging from insomnia to sleep apnea profoundly impact individual well-being and societal productivity [1]. While traditional diagnostic and therapeutic methods like polysomnography and cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia are effective, they are also labor-intensive, less patient-centered, and expensive. The emergence of digital phenotyping, using data from personal digital devices such as smartphones and wearables, heralds a promising new direction in sleep medicine [2]. Digital phenotyping offers several advantages over traditional methods. It allows continuous, active, and passive data collection in a patient’s natural environment, capturing a nuanced and comprehensive image of daily sleep patterns. These insights illuminate the interplay between sleep, lifestyle, behavior, health, and overall well-being [2]. Digital phenotyping is also cost-effective, negating the need for expensive equipment or hospitalization, facilitating early identification of high-risk individuals for testing, and reducing unnecessary healthcare expenditure. Recent studies have validated the use of digital phenotyping in sleep medicine, revealing that sleep patterns derived from smartphones or wearable devices closely correlate with actigraphy, a noninvasive method for monitoring rest/activity cycles [3,4]. Techniques introduced to measure aspects such as sleep stages and sleep apnea events using only smartphone data demonstrate that digital phenotyping may facilitate screening for sleep disorders [5]. Additionally, conditions like mood disorders, closely linked to sleep-wake rhythms, can be assessed or predicted based on digital Revolutionizing Sleep Health: The Promise and Challenges of Digital Phenotyping