Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-05-20DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020027
Christine Gharib, Catherine Kim, Jun Ling, Madhu Varma
{"title":"Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Critically Ill Patients: A Structured Narrative Review of Prevalence, Diagnostic Barriers, and Clinical Implications in the ICU.","authors":"Christine Gharib, Catherine Kim, Jun Ling, Madhu Varma","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020027","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020027","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent yet frequently underdiagnosed condition that is associated with significant cardiopulmonary, metabolic, and neurocognitive outcomes. Risk factors for OSA overlap with illnesses commonly observed in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, resulting in a disproportionately elevated burden on healthcare. This structured narrative review synthesizes current evidence regarding the prevalence, diagnostic challenges, and clinical implications of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in critically ill adults admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) using PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus. Key search terms included \"obstructive sleep apnea,\" \"ICU,\" and \"critical illness.\" Results showed that OSA is present in up to 60-70% of ICU patients, yet only ~5% are formally diagnosed during hospitalization. Underdiagnosis is linked to prolonged mechanical ventilation, extubation failure rates as high as 30%, 2-fold higher perioperative complication rates, cardiovascular instability, 1.8-fold greater 30-day ICU readmission rates, and 2.2-fold mortality. Standard screening tools have limited applicability in ICU patients. Emerging alternatives, such as overnight oximetry, polygraphy, and machine learning models lack validation. Our analyses reveal that current diagnostic and treatment strategies are poorly adapted to critically ill patients. Integration of OSA as a part of ICU management, diagnosis, and intervention may reduce readmissions and mortality.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214661/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-05-09DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020026
Lu Liu, Wen Zhou, Yu Luo, Yueyi Zhang, Dongxi Wang, Ming Chen, Zhiming Wang, Yan Zeng
{"title":"Association of Healthy Lifestyle with Insomnia Among Chinese Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.","authors":"Lu Liu, Wen Zhou, Yu Luo, Yueyi Zhang, Dongxi Wang, Ming Chen, Zhiming Wang, Yan Zeng","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020026","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Insomnia is common among older adults and is associated with adverse health outcomes, yet evidence on its relationship with healthy lifestyle in Chinese older adults is limited. This study included 4929 participants from the Hubei Memory and Aging Cohort Study (HMACS). A healthy lifestyle score (range 0-6) was constructed based on body weight, drinking alcohol, smoking, regular exercise, diet, and cognitive activity. Participants were categorized into unfavorable (0-2), average (3), and favorable (4-6) lifestyle groups. Insomnia was defined using the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS ≥ 6), or the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI > 5). Multivariable logistic regression models were applied to assess the associations of overall and individual healthy behaviors with insomnia risk. Stratified analyses by smoking status and substitution analyses were conducted. Healthier lifestyle was associated with lower risk of insomnia. Compared with the unfavorable group, participants with favorable lifestyle had a 17.5% lower risk of insomnia. Among individual lifestyle behaviors, healthy diet and active cognitive activity were associated with reduced insomnia risk. Stratified analyses showed these associations were only evident among non-current smokers. Substitution analyses suggested that replacing unhealthy behaviors with healthy ones was associated with a lower insomnia risk. Favorable lifestyle, particularly healthy diet and active cognitive activity, is associated with lower insomnia risk among older adults, with stronger associations observed among non-current smokers.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214727/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-05-07DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020025
Kaori Endo, Keiichi Shimatani, Norimichi Suzuki
{"title":"Pet Co-Sleeping and Well-Being: Evidence from Two Cross-Sectional Online Surveys of Youths and Adults.","authors":"Kaori Endo, Keiichi Shimatani, Norimichi Suzuki","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020025","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While the health benefits of pet ownership are well-documented, research on co-sleeping with pets has yielded conflicting results, often contrasting objective sleep disturbances with subjective satisfaction. This study examined the association between dog or cat co-sleeping and well-being across two age groups: adults and youths. Data were collected through two cross-sectional online surveys involving adults (<i>n</i> = 2675) and youths (<i>n</i> = 1050). Participants reported their pet ownership, co-sleeping status, and well-being using the five-item World Health Organization Well-being Index (WHO-5). Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to compare WHO-5 scores among three groups: non-owners, owners who do not co-sleep, and co-sleepers. In adults, dog co-sleepers exhibited significantly higher well-being scores compared to non-owners (<i>p</i> = 0.025). However, no significant associations were observed in the youth sample. These findings suggest that while pet co-sleeping is often perceived as disruptive, it may be positively associated with subjective well-being in adult populations. Further longitudinal research is needed to clarify the causal relationship and the specific mechanisms underlying this \"pet effect\" in the context of shared sleep environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214887/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-30DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020024
Michalina Rzepka, Aleksandra Buczek, Tomasz Chmiela, Weronika Galus, Joanna Siuda, Ewa Krzystanek
{"title":"Sleep Hygiene and Symptom Burden in Multiple Sclerosis: A Cross-Sectional Study.","authors":"Michalina Rzepka, Aleksandra Buczek, Tomasz Chmiela, Weronika Galus, Joanna Siuda, Ewa Krzystanek","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020024","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep disturbances are common in multiple sclerosis (MS) and contribute to increased symptom burden. Behavioral sleep hygiene practices are potentially modifiable factors influencing sleep and related symptoms, yet their role in MS remains insufficiently explored. This cross-sectional study comprised 175 MS patients. Sleep hygiene was assessed using a behavioral checklist covering a regular sleep schedule, avoidance of daytime naps, limitation of evening caffeine intake, reduced evening screen exposure, and optimization of the sleep environment. The instruments included the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Higher sleep hygiene adherence was associated with lower daytime sleepiness (ESS: r = -0.18, <i>p</i> = 0.020), anxiety (HADS-A: r = -0.16, <i>p</i> = 0.034), and depression (HADS-D: r = -0.15, <i>p</i> = 0.047). Patients with higher adherence (score ≥ 3) demonstrated significantly lower MFIS, AIS, ESS, and HADS-D scores compared with those with lower adherence (all <i>p</i> < 0.05). Multivariate regression showed that sleep hygiene adherence was independently associated with lower MFIS (β = -3.24, 95% CI: -6.06 to -0.41, <i>p</i> = 0.025), ESS (β = -0.85, 95% CI: -6.06 to -0.41, <i>p</i> = 0.016), HADS-A (β = -0.67, 95% CI: -1.23 to -0.11, <i>p</i> = 0.019), and HADS-D scores (β = -0.62, 95% CI: -1.17; -0.08, <i>p</i> = 0.026). Better adherence to sleep hygiene practices may be associated with a lower symptom burden in MS.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214699/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-28DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020022
Hulya Merie, Bashair M Mussa, Salah Abusnana
{"title":"The Role of Circadian Rhythm Dysregulation, Abnormal Sleep Patterns, and Sleep Disorders on the Development of Diabetes.","authors":"Hulya Merie, Bashair M Mussa, Salah Abusnana","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020022","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020022","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>It is noteworthy that disturbances in circadian rhythms and irregular sleep patterns can exert influence over the onset of Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM). Similarly, they can impact the development of Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM). In recent decades, there has been a notable trend towards both reduced and extended sleep durations, with a concurrent rise in occurrences of compromised sleep quality attributable to sleep fragmentation. These sleep disturbances, along with clinically recognized sleep disorders such as sleep apnea and insomnia, have been increasingly associated with a range of detrimental health outcomes. Of particular concern is the growing evidence linking sleep dysregulation to an augmented risk of metabolic diseases, including diabetes. In addition to sleep duration and quality, emerging research suggests that an individual's chronotype, reflecting their preferred time for going to sleep, may also exert an influence on disease development, particularly T2DM. The habit of going to bed late when compared to the tendency of going to bed early tends to cause significant disruptions to daily social engagements. Eventually, this misalignment may lead to discrepancies in sleep schedules between weekdays and weekends, commonly referred to as social jetlag. The current review aims to discuss the complex relationship between circadian rhythm misalignment, triggered by improper sleep habits such as short or long sleep duration, disrupted chronotype, social jetlag, and sleep disorders, on the subsequent impact on the development of diabetes. Overall, current evidence suggests that circadian rhythm disruption and sleep disorders contribute significantly to metabolic dysregulation and diabetes risk, highlighting the importance of sleep health in prevention and management of diabetes.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214657/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148036009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-28DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020023
Prajoona Valsalan, Mohammad Maroof Siddiqui
{"title":"AI-Driven Hybrid Detection and Classification Framework for Secure Sleep Health IoT Networks.","authors":"Prajoona Valsalan, Mohammad Maroof Siddiqui","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020023","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020023","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Sleep disorders, such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), narcolepsy, REM sleep behavior disorder, and circadian rhythm disturbances, represent a rapidly expanding global health burden that is strongly associated with cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological, and psychiatric diseases. Advancements in wearable sensing technologies and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) infrastructures have expanded the possibilities for continuous, home-based sleep assessment beyond conventional polysomnography laboratories. These Sleep Health Internet of Things (S-HIoT) systems combine multimodal physiological sensing (EEG, ECG, SpO<sub>2</sub>, respiratory effort and actigraphy) with wireless communication and cloud-based analytics for automated sleep-stage classification and disorder detection. Nonetheless, the digitization of sleep medicine brings about significant cybersecurity concerns. The constant transmission of sensitive biomedical information makes S-HIoT networks open to anomalous traffic flows, signal manipulation, replay attacks, spoofing, and data integrity violation. Existing studies mostly focus on analyzing physiological signals and network intrusion detection independently, resulting in a systemic vulnerability of cyber-physical sleep monitoring ecosystems. With the aim of addressing this empirical deficiency, this review integrates emerging advances (2022-2026) in the AI-assisted categorization of sleep phases and IoMT anomaly detector designs on the finer analysis of CNN, LSTM/BiLSTM, Transformer-based systems, and a component part of federated schemes and the lightweight, edge-deployable intruder assessor models available. The aim of this study is to uncover a gap in the literature: integrated architectures to trade off audiences of faithfulness of physiological modeling with communication-layer security. To counter it, we present a single framework to include CNN-based spatial feature extraction, Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM)-based temporal models and Random Forest-based ensemble classification using a dual task-learning approach. We propose a multi-objective optimization framework to jointly optimize the performance of sleep-stage prediction and that of network anomaly detection. Performance on publicly available datasets (Sleep-EDF and CICIoMT2024) confirms that hybrid integration can be tailored to achieve high accuracy [99.8% sleep staging; 98.6% anomaly detection] whilst being characterized by low inference latency (<45 ms), which is promising for feasibility in real-time deployment in view of targeting edge devices. This work presents a comprehensive framework for developing secure, intelligent, and clinically robust digital sleep health ecosystems by bridging chronobiological signal modeling with cybersecurity mechanisms. Furthermore, it highlights future research directions, including explainable AI, federated secure learning, adversarial robustness, and energy-aware edge optimization.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214672/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-27DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020021
Franco Tavella, Michael Gradisar, Renske Lok, Olivia Walch
{"title":"From Sunlight to Screens: Modeling When Light Exposure Matters Most for Sleep and Circadian Health.","authors":"Franco Tavella, Michael Gradisar, Renske Lok, Olivia Walch","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020021","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020021","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Understanding the effects of light on the body at different times of the 24 h solar day is a topic of increasing interest. In this paper, we use a mathematical model from the literature to simulate what would be expected of the human circadian clock on different light schedules. We first reproduce an influential experiment which found eBooks, when compared to a paper book, delayed sleep by roughly 10 min and melatonin onset by 1.5 h. The model is able to match the delay in sleep onset but struggles to reproduce the melatonin phase delay. However, certain initial conditions and parameters are capable of phase shifts consistent with the original study's magnitude, suggesting that the original study's finding may have been influenced by the pre-study entrainment or variability among the participants. We next simulate the same protocol under higher daytime light levels (increasing baseline illumination from 90 to 500 lux) and find that brighter daytime exposure reduces both sleep onset latency and the variability in phase delay attributable to evening eBook light. Finally, we explore how the timing of a bright light pulse during the day changes outcomes, such as sleep onset and circadian amplitude, and how these effects interact with light during the other hours of the 24 h day. Together, these modeling results suggest robust daytime light exposure confers resilience against the circadian-disruptive effects of evening light, generating testable predictions regarding the timing and intensity of beneficial light interventions for maintaining circadian alignment.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13214838/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148035892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-17DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020020
José Costa Dias, Philippe Peigneux
{"title":"Post-Learning Offline Pauses Support Consolidation Beyond the Mind-Wandering State.","authors":"José Costa Dias, Philippe Peigneux","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020020","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Brief post-learning wakeful resting periods and local sleep mechanisms have been proposed to support offline memory consolidation processes. Mind-wandering (MW), thought to reflect the occurrence or need for local sleep, has been linked to momentary attentional disengagement and may index transitions toward offline processing states. We hypothesized that resting opportunities administered immediately after probe-caught MW episodes reflecting local sleep need may selectively enhance memory consolidation. In a first experiment, participants learned five blocks of eight paired-associate words; a MW thought probe was administered after each block. In the MW condition, participants were allowed a 3 min quiet, offline pause after the block if they reported MW. In the control condition, no pause was administered. Consolidation was better in the MW than the control condition, supporting the hypothesis. However, Experiment 2 tested the MW-related pause effect by comparing the MW condition to a condition in which pauses were allowed irrespective of MW. Results showed that performance equally improved in both conditions, suggesting that post-learning pause effects would not be MW-specific. However, additional analyses evidenced a positive relationship between MW intensity and memory consolidation in both experiments. Our findings suggest that transient interruption of input during a declarative learning session may favor memory consolidation at wake, partially independently of the attentional state.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13108017/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147782781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-15DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020019
Emilly Francianne Lamego da Silva, Guilherme Martins, Francimara Diniz Ribeiro, Leonardo Martins Guimaraes Rossi, Milena Fernandes de Oliveira, Camila Fernanda Cunha Brandão, Lucas Rios Drummond, Lucas Tulio Lacerda, Thais de Fatima Bittencourt Oliveira, Michael Jackson Oliveira de Andrade
{"title":"Light Exposure Rhythms and Sleep Organization in Adolescents: Temporal Differences Between Weekdays and Weekends in an Actigraphic Study.","authors":"Emilly Francianne Lamego da Silva, Guilherme Martins, Francimara Diniz Ribeiro, Leonardo Martins Guimaraes Rossi, Milena Fernandes de Oliveira, Camila Fernanda Cunha Brandão, Lucas Rios Drummond, Lucas Tulio Lacerda, Thais de Fatima Bittencourt Oliveira, Michael Jackson Oliveira de Andrade","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020019","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020019","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Light exposure is a primary zeitgeber for the human circadian system and plays a key role in shaping sleep-wake patterns during adolescence, a period marked by biological sensitivity and social constraints. How the temporal organization and spectral composition of daily light exposure differ between weekdays and weekends remains poorly understood. Eighteen adolescents (15-17 years) were monitored for seven days using wrist actigraphy with integrated light sensors. Sleep parameters, nonparametric circadian rhythm indices, and time-resolved profiles of ambient and spectral (blue, green, and red) light exposure were analyzed. Repeated-measures ANOVA tested the effects of time of day and day type. Total sleep time and time in bed were longer on weekdays than on weekends (<i>p</i> < 0.05), while sleep latency and WASO did not differ. Circadian indices indicated preserved rhythmic organization. Light exposure showed a robust diurnal profile, with higher spectral irradiance on weekends (<i>p</i> < 0.001), especially in the morning and early afternoon. Significant time × day-type interactions were observed across all spectral bands (<i>p</i> < 0.001), indicating systematic reshaping of daily light profiles. Adolescents exhibit weekday-weekend differences in the temporal and spectral organization of light exposure, affecting the amplitude and shape of overall daily profiles.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13108061/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147783401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clocks & SleepPub Date : 2026-04-09DOI: 10.3390/clockssleep8020018
Tony J Cunningham, Shengzi Zeng, Seo Ho Song
{"title":"Sleepless in Society: Introducing the Concept of Public Sleep.","authors":"Tony J Cunningham, Shengzi Zeng, Seo Ho Song","doi":"10.3390/clockssleep8020018","DOIUrl":"10.3390/clockssleep8020018","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Major social, cultural, and sociopolitical events routinely disrupt daily life, yet their effects on sleep are rarely conceptualized at the population level beyond anecdotal sharing. The purpose of this <i>Opinion</i> piece is to initiate a preliminary discussion of \"public sleep\" as a novel construct describing systematic, event-related changes in sleep timing, duration, and quality that emerge coherently within communities in response to shared social experiences. Drawing on similarities with the well-established concept of public mood, we posit that sleep can be shaped by social environments in which shared attention, emotional climate, and coordinated schedules exert systematic influence. In support of this claim, we describe preliminary evidence from diverse domains demonstrating population-level sleep disruption following major events, including the transition to Daylight Saving Time, national elections, prolonged crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts, and highly salient cultural activities such as major sporting events. These reports from disparate fields provide an initial indication that public sleep disruptions can be acute or prolonged, geographically localized or global, and may be shaped by the duration, emotional intensity, and perceived importance of the associated event. We further highlight the potential public health, safety, social, and economic consequences of collective sleep loss, underscoring its relevance beyond individual well-being. Finally, we outline key directions for future research, emphasizing the need for systematic reviews, mechanistic studies, longitudinal designs, and policy-relevant recommendations. Recognizing public sleep as a measurable population phenomenon would provide a foundation for anticipating, monitoring, and mitigating sleep disruption during periods of collective strain, with implications for both individual health and societal resilience.</p>","PeriodicalId":33568,"journal":{"name":"Clocks & Sleep","volume":"8 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13108207/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147782769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}