Fran Pilkington-Cheney, Claire André, Seren Ucak, Raoua Ben Messaoud, Anna M Biller, Inês Dias, Jose Prius Mengual, Daniela Noain, Michaela Pawley, Monisha Ravikumar, Matias Rusanen, Laura Stankeviciute, Adriana Michalak
{"title":"A Call to Action: Challenges and Future Directions for Sleep Health in Europe.","authors":"Fran Pilkington-Cheney, Claire André, Seren Ucak, Raoua Ben Messaoud, Anna M Biller, Inês Dias, Jose Prius Mengual, Daniela Noain, Michaela Pawley, Monisha Ravikumar, Matias Rusanen, Laura Stankeviciute, Adriana Michalak","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70467","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70467","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep is fundamental to physical, cognitive, and emotional health and wellbeing. However, it is increasingly threatened by environmental, social, technological, and cultural pressures. To identify key priorities for improving sleep health across Europe, the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS)'s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) and Early Career Network (ECN) convened a joint taskforce to review current challenges and develop strategic recommendations. Through a scoping review of the literature, iterative consensus meetings, and collaborative synthesis, the taskforce identified five overarching challenges: (1) environmental and climate-related threats to sleep; (2) inequitable access to sleep medicine and care; (3) the rapid expansion and potential of digital health technologies; (4) widespread sleep misinformation and misconceptions surrounding sleep health; and (5) societal change, constant technological connectivity, and the emergence of a 24/7 culture. These interconnected challenges disproportionately affect vulnerable groups and risk exacerbating existing health inequalities. In response, we propose a coordinated set of recommendations structured according to the PESTEL framework (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Environmental and Legal). Collectively, these recommendations advocate for integrated and equity-focused approaches to strengthen the structural and organisational conditions that support sleep health, improve sleep health literacy, regulate emerging technologies, and ensure that healthy sleep becomes an achievable public health priority across Europe.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70467"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149220202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Slow Frontal Spindle Activity and Declarative Memory Retention During Daytime Naps.","authors":"Vaishali Mutreja, Prakriti Gupta, Ovidiu Lungu, Latifa Lazzouni, Arnaud Boutin, Ella Gabitov, Madeleine Sharp, Julie Carrier, Julien Doyon","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70478","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70478","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Memory consolidation refers to how newly encoded memories are strengthened and retained over time, and ample evidence indicates that sleep supports this process for both procedural and declarative memories. Although sleep spindles during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep have been associated with consolidation, it remains unclear whether all spindle types contribute equally. Spindles vary in frequency and topography, slow spindles (≤ 12.5 Hz) predominating frontally, fast spindles (> 12.5 Hz) parietally and recent work suggests that procedural memory consolidation relates to the temporal organization of spindles in 'trains' (events occurring < 6 s apart). We investigated whether a similar mechanism operates for declarative memory during daytime naps. Participants (Nap, N = 23; No-Nap, N = 15) completed an object-location task involving 36 item-location associations, tested immediately after learning and again following a 90-min nap opportunity or an equivalent wake period. The Nap group exhibited significantly better delayed memory, measured by combined recall-associative recognition scores and a greater proportion of nappers maintained or improved performance. Within the Nap group, memory was positively associated with local spindle density at frontal and parietal sites and with the proportion of slow frontal spindles clustered in trains during NREM2. Contrary to our expectations, however, these associations did not reach significance under two-tailed testing, possibly reflecting the limited sample size and thus lack of statistical power for an experimental design based on naps. Together, our results demonstrate a robust behavioural benefit of daytime naps for declarative memory retention and, more tentatively, point to slow frontal spindle activity as a candidate correlate for future work.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70478"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149194745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Laura Schmidt, Amandine E Rey, Bérénice Valero, Sophie Schlatter, Eve Reynaud, Marc Lilot, Karim Tazarourte, Marion Douplat, Stéphanie Mazza
{"title":"A Personalized Recovery Intervention to Support Sleep Health in Emergency Healthcare Professionals.","authors":"Laura Schmidt, Amandine E Rey, Bérénice Valero, Sophie Schlatter, Eve Reynaud, Marc Lilot, Karim Tazarourte, Marion Douplat, Stéphanie Mazza","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70464","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70464","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Optimizing sleep health in healthcare professionals is a challenge, as misalignment between endogenous circadian rhythms and exogenous work schedules undermines recovery, well-being, and performance. This study evaluated a tailored recovery intervention based on cognitive-behavioural approaches for insomnia designed to support recovery to rotating night shifts. In a randomized controlled trial (REST), 72 emergency healthcare professionals were randomized to intervention or control. The intervention combined personalized sleep-wake feedback with stress management techniques. Sleep-wake rhythms were monitored via actigraphy for 3 weeks before and 1 week after the intervention. Outcomes included objective sleep duration, self-reported sleepiness, insomnia severity, and subjective sleep quality, measured using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Insomnia Severity Index, and Leeds Sleep Evaluation Questionnaire. Fifty-nine participants (28 intervention, 31 control) were included in the primary analyses. Even on free nights, average nocturnal sleep duration was 6 h and 21 min, below recommended levels for adults. Compared with controls, intervention participants increased nocturnal time in bed by 37 min, 95% CI [13, 62], p = 0.003, and total sleep time by 23 min, 95% CI [4, 42], p = 0.019. Perceived sleep quality also improved for the intervention group t(55) = -7.91, p < 0.001, d = 2.06, 95% CI [1.42, 2.70], and insomnia symptoms decreased (β = -2.23, 95% CI [-4.26, -0.21], p = 0.031). These findings suggest that structured occupational recovery programs can enhance sleep health and facilitate recovery across rotating night work schedules. Integrating such interventions into training may reduce burnout, improve safety, and support workforce sustainability.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70464"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149182765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pharmacological Inhibition of Histamine N-Methyltransferase Markedly Improves Hypersomnia in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease.","authors":"Birkan Girgin, Fumito Naganuma, Toshimasa Mimura, Motoki Fujiya, Ruoyu Zhu, Jingqi Wang, Kyosuke Hirano, Ren Ebina, Sho Morimura, Tadaho Nakamura, Ramalingam Vetrivelan, Takeo Yoshikawa","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70469","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. In addition to motor symptoms, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) occurs frequently in patients with PD and severely impairs their quality of life. Current pharmacotherapies for EDS in PD are often associated with adverse effects. However, clinical studies have yielded inconsistent results, underscoring the need for safer, more effective treatment strategies. Histamine plays a pivotal role in maintaining wakefulness in the brain and is primarily inactivated by histamine N-methyltransferase (HNMT), the major enzyme responsible for histamine clearance in the central nervous system. We previously demonstrated that pharmacological inhibition of HNMT markedly elevates brain histamine levels and potently promotes wakefulness in mouse models of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, suggesting that targeting HNMT may also be beneficial for treating hypersomnia in PD. Here, we investigated whether pharmacological inhibition of HNMT ameliorates hypersomnia in a 6-hydroxydopamine-induced mouse model of PD. We first confirmed dopaminergic neuronal loss and hypersomnia during the active phase in a mouse model of PD. Pharmacological inhibition of HNMT with metoprine robustly increased wakefulness, markedly reduced NREM and REM sleep, and prolonged sleep latency. Metoprine also reduced sleep-wake bout fragmentation, indicating the sustained consolidation of wakefulness. In direct comparison, metoprine produced stronger and more sustained wake-promoting effects than other wake-promoting agents. These findings indicate that HNMT inhibition represents a promising and mechanistically distinct therapeutic approach for EDS in PD.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70469"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149182736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Minyu Jian, Yiwei Chen, Xinxin Wang, Yi Liang, Wanning Yang, Jun Ma, Chunxue Wang, Jianghong He, Ruquan Han
{"title":"Effects of General Anaesthesia on the Sleep Structure of Patients With Prolonged Disorders of Consciousness.","authors":"Minyu Jian, Yiwei Chen, Xinxin Wang, Yi Liang, Wanning Yang, Jun Ma, Chunxue Wang, Jianghong He, Ruquan Han","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70475","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep disturbances are common in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC) and are closely correlated with clinical outcomes. With an increasing number of pDoC patients undergoing surgery under general anaesthesia (GA), this study characterized sleep patterns in pDoC patients and evaluated the effects of GA on consciousness and nocturnal sleep. We prospectively enrolled 30 pDoC patients (14 in vegetative state [VS] and 16 in minimally conscious state [MCS]) undergoing spinal cord stimulation and 12 healthy controls. Among pDoC patients, 19 (10 VS, 9 MCS) with complete pre- and postoperative PSG data were analysed for GA effects. Controls underwent one overnight polysomnography (PSG); pDoC patients underwent pre- and postoperative PSG. Consciousness was assessed with Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) before and after surgery. Compared with controls, pDoC patients presented significantly impaired sleep structure, including reduced total sleep time (TST), decreased NREM Stage 2 sleep, diminished slow-wave sleep (SWS), reduced rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration and percentage relative to TST (all p < 0.05). No significant short-term changes in CRS-R scores were observed following GA. Although GA significantly prolonged TST (p = 0.039), with numerical increases in absolute NREM and SWS durations, no statistically significant changes were observed in sleep stage percentages relative to TST (all p > 0.05). Subgroup analysis showed no significant within-group changes in sleep stage percentages in either the VS or MCS group. These findings suggest that GA increases TST without statistically significant changes in sleep structure in pDoC patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70475"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149166392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Neurobehavioural Associations of Recurrent Short Sleep in School-Aged Children.","authors":"Tiffany Belinda Koa, Yanran Hu, June Chi-Yan Lo","doi":"10.1111/jsr.70466","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70466","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recurrent cycles of weekday short sleep and weekend sleep extension have been shown to result in more prominent neurobehavioural impairments during subsequent weeks of sleep restriction in adolescents and young adults. Whether the same would be observed in school-aged children is unclear. In this micro-longitudinal observational cohort study, 79 children (6-12 years old, 34 males) were tracked for 16 days at home. Sleep was measured using actigraphy. Neurobehavioural functions-processing speed, working memory, vigilance, subjective sleepiness and affect-were assessed daily through a smartphone application. Forty participants had a daily average time-in-bed of less than 9 h on weekdays but at least 9 h on weekends (short sleep group), while 39 participants had at least 9 h on both weekdays and weekends (well-rested group). There were no significant group × day interactions for any neurobehavioural measure (p > 0.61), but the short sleep group reported overall higher levels of subjective sleepiness (mean Karolinska Sleepiness Scale score [SE]: 4.51 [0.21] vs. 3.77 [0.21], p = 0.01) and lower positive affect (score on the 10-item Positive and Negative Affect Schedule for Children: 12.84 [0.64] vs. 15.15 [0.65], p = 0.01) than the well-rested group. Within the short sleep group, none of the neurobehavioural measures showed observable weekday-weekend differences or compounding impairments during the second cycle of weekday short sleep. Unlike in adolescents and young adults, recurrent cycles of short sleep on weekdays and sleep extension on weekends may not be associated with compounding neurobehavioural impairments in school-aged children.</p>","PeriodicalId":17057,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Sleep Research","volume":" ","pages":"e70466"},"PeriodicalIF":4.6,"publicationDate":"2026-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149169840","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}