From sleep medicine to medicine during sleep: A clinical perspective

TL;DR

This paper explores how sleep can be utilized as a valuable period for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating various non-sleep-related health conditions using modern biosensor and data analysis technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a new paradigm of using sleep as a window for medical diagnosis and therapy, supported by clinical studies and technological advancements.

Findings

Sleep allows for non-invasive collection of physiological data.

Novel technologies enable diagnosis and treatment during sleep.

Sleep-based monitoring improves detection of certain pathologies.

Abstract

Sleep has a profound influence on the physiology of body systems and biological processes. Molecular studies have shown circadian-regulated shifts in protein expression patterns across human tissues, further emphasizing the unique functional, behavioral and pharmacokinetic landscape of sleep. Thus, many pathological processes are also expected to exhibit sleep-specific manifestations. Nevertheless, sleep is seldom utilized for the study, detection and treatment of non-sleep-specific pathologies. Modern advances in biosensor technologies have enabled remote, non-invasive recording of a growing number of physiologic parameters and biomarkers. Sleep is an ideal time frame for the collection of long and clean physiological time series data which can then be analyzed using data-driven algorithms such as deep learning. In this perspective paper, we aim to highlight the potential of sleep as an auspicious time for diagnosis, management and therapy of nonsleep-specific pathologies. We introduce key clinical studies in selected medical fields, which leveraged novel technologies and the advantageous period of sleep to diagnose, monitor and treat pathologies. We then discuss possible opportunities to further harness this new paradigm and modern technologies to explore human health and disease during sleep and to advance the development of novel clinical applications: From sleep medicine to medicine during sleep.