Research

MIT researchers used real-time brain monitoring to fire 50-millisecond bursts of pink noise at the exact peak of each slow brain wave during sleep, boosting the size of the cerebrospinal fluid pulses believed to flush waste products from the brain.

Stanford's Emmanuel Mignot and Tsukuba's Masashi Yanagisawa have won the 2026 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for discovering orexin and proving its absence causes narcolepsy, a finding that led directly to this year's first FDA-approved orexin-replacement drug.

A McGill University study of 54 sleep-deprived adults found that a 20-minute workout and a 90-minute nap each improved memory performance by about 22% compared to doing neither — but EEG recordings show exercise and sleep protect the brain through distinct mechanisms.

A three-year Concordia University study of 60 Alzheimer's patients found that stronger sleep spindles and slow oscillations during deep sleep were linked to slower cognitive decline, while elevated levels of the wake-promoting chemical orexin predicted worse outcomes.

Silencing two brainstem neuron populations cut NREM sleep in mice by nearly 70% — yet most survived, stayed alert, and still formed memories, suggesting the pressure to sleep and the need for it are separable systems.

A new Emory University study of older adults with sleep disturbance and mild cognitive impairment found those taking at least 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily scored more than 13% higher on a standard cognitive test than those who took none.

A new mouse study found that sleep deprivation significantly alters regulatory T cell populations tied to immune regulation, and that melatonin supplementation reversed several of these changes — offering mechanistic insight into how poor sleep weakens immune defenses.

Baylor College of Medicine researchers found that astrocytes directly regulate the brain circuits that consolidate memories during sleep, controlled by a single transcription factor that, when removed, disrupts sleep rhythms and impairs memory in mice.

A study of more than 500 healthy adults found that brief nocturnal micro-awakenings, invisible to the sleeper, correlate with genetic Alzheimer's risk in middle-aged but not young adults, suggesting sleep architecture could serve as an early, low-cost risk marker.

A comprehensive review in Trends in Neurosciences finds that exercise supports the glymphatic system, the brain's sleep-dependent waste-clearance pathway, through five distinct physiological mechanisms tied to healthy aging.

A large multicohort study finds that the active, eye-movement-rich phase of REM sleep declines steadily with age — and more steeply in women — even when total REM time looks normal, suggesting a hidden marker of brain aging.

The FDA has approved Orzeyful (oveporexton), the first medicine designed to restore orexin signaling in narcolepsy type 1. Two Phase 3 trials found it improved daytime wakefulness, cut cataplexy attacks, and eased sleep paralysis and hallucinations, though DEA scheduling must still clear before it reaches patients.

Georgia Tech researchers have built a Band-Aid-sized wireless patch that uses near-infrared light to track brain water dynamics tied to the glymphatic system — the brain's overnight waste-clearance process — continuously through the night in a person's own bed, offering a path to studying a process previously measurable mainly in a lab or via MRI.

A new study found that microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, drive the severe sleep disruption seen in Alzheimer's disease — and that depleting them restored more than two hours of deep sleep per night in mice, even though amyloid plaque levels stayed the same.

A public pediatric sleep clinic in São Paulo has designed an interdisciplinary program — combining psychoeducation, gradual mask desensitization, and telehealth follow-ups — to help children with sleep apnea adhere to PAP therapy. The study lays out how to make it work within the constraints of Brazil's universal health system.

The fourth edition of São Paulo's landmark EPISONO study found obstructive sleep apnea in 37% of adults — up from about 33% a decade earlier — using full-night sleep-lab testing on a representative sample of the city. Aging, higher body mass, and being male were the strongest risk factors.

The FDA has accepted Axsome Therapeutics' application for AXS-12, an investigational drug for cataplexy in narcolepsy that reduced weekly attacks by 56% within a week in a phase 3 trial, nearly double the effect seen with placebo.

A meta-analysis of 57 brain-imaging studies found that sleep disorders converge on structural changes in the thalamus — an attention and information-filtering hub — while parasomnias like sleepwalking carry a distinct signature in a region tied to motivation.

Researchers have identified tryptamine as a sleep-promoting signal released by wake-active neurons. The molecule acts through the GPR139 receptor in the hypothalamus, and synthetic GPR139 agonists improved sleep duration and quality in animal models — pointing toward a fundamentally new class of sleep medication.

Data from more than 2,000 young people in the Future of Families study shows that sleep problems measured at age 15 — by both wearable devices and self-report — predicted higher rates of hospitalization and worse health by age 22.