Latest in Sleep Medicine News

Adherence to integrated 24-hour movement guidelines (moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, recreational screen time, and sleep) is low among young people but has been linked tolinked to better health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, the evidence is largely cross-sectional and may not adequately capture factors that change over time. This study examined whether adherence across childhood and mid-adolescence is associated with HRQoL in late adolescence, whether adherence predicts HRQoL at subsequent wave, and whether these associations differ by sex.

Athlete burnout significantly affects both athlete well-being and performance, potentially influenced by dietary patterns, sleep quality, screen time, and stress-coping strategies. However, the mechanistic interplay among these factors remains unclear. This study utilized a cross-sectional design to examine the relationships between daily health behaviors (including diet, sleep, and screen time), stress coping strategies, perceived psychological strain and athlete burnout among Chinese competitive swimmers.

Cannabis use is common among persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, PLWH) and has been associated with disrupted sleep, psychiatric symptoms, and increased healthcare utilization. However, the influence of concurrent cocaine and cannabis use on symptom trajectories and healthcare engagement remains unclear.

Although clinical markers (eg, motor and cognitive impairment) in isolated rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (iRBD) are associated with faster phenoconversion, their longitudinal trajectory patterns (linear or nonlinear) remain unclear. Additionally, evidence regarding the magnitude of neurodegenerative risk in iRBD compared to non-RBD individuals remains limited.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the sleep quality of children with epilepsy and their mothers, and to identify the factors affecting sleep quality.

Arrhythmia recurrence after atrial fibrillation (AF) catheter ablation remains a substantial clinical challenge, but risk factors of arrhythmia recurrence are not well defined.

Intermittent hypoxia (IH), a hallmark of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), is closely associated with liver injury and ferroptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying IH-induced liver damage remain largely unexplored. Here, we identify circ_38959 as a novel liver-protective circular RNA that mitigates IH-induced injury and ferroptosis. Circ_38959 overexpression in AML-12 hepatocytes significantly rescued cell viability, reduced apoptosis, and suppressed ferroptosis under IH conditions. Mechanistically, RNA immunoprecipitation uncovered that IGF2BP3 functions as a key interacting protein of circ_38959. Knocking down circ_38959 can down-regulate the protein expressions of IGF2BP3, c-Myc and c-Met. Functional studies revealed that IGF2BP3 deficiency abrogated the protective effects of circ_38959, confirming its essential role in liver protection and ferroptosis suppression. In an IH mouse model, AAV-mediated overexpression of circ_38959 effectively rescued liver function, and suppressed ferroptosis. Collectively, our study unveils a circ_38959-IGF2BP3 interaction that protects against IH-induced liver damage, highlighting circ_38959 as a potential therapeutic target for liver injury associated with OSA.

The Chronic Respiratory Disease Questionnaire (CRQ) was developed to measure health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with a minimum clinically important difference (MCID) of 0.5 points per item. It has been used in clinical trials of patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD), however its validity and MCID in this population is unknown.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has made significant strides, gaining traction across various domains, including clinical medicine. The integration of AI as a decision-support tool introduces complexities, particularly in ensuring patient safety and upholding clinical accountability. This is especially pertinent in clinical neurophysiology (CNP), where AI shows promise in enhancing the interpretation of neurophysiologic data from modalities such as electroencephalography, electromyography, and others. Recognizing the potential and inherent challenges of AI integration, the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology (IFCN) has set forth guidelines to steer the responsible development, evaluation, and application of AI technologies in CNP. The IFCN's core position on AI in CNP emphasizes improving healthcare outcomes, prioritizing patient-centered care, maintaining transparency in AI-generated interpretations, and supporting, rather than replacing, clinical expertise. As AI technology evolves, the IFCN stresses that models implemented in clinical practice, especially when lacking supervision by experts must meet stringent standards for accuracy, safety, and quality control, and that AI cannot substitute expert care without adequate oversight. The successful integration of AI in CNP hinges on dataset diversity, transparent and ethical training practices, and balancing model complexity with real-world validation. Continuous performance monitoring and clinician feedback are vital to maintaining AI system reliability over time. The IFCN envisions a future where AI ethically enhances CNP practice through multidisciplinary collaboration, focusing on patient safety, clinical integrity, and scientific rigor. Properly implemented, AI can revolutionize CNP by offering real-time decision support, personalized interventions, and remote monitoring, thus advancing the quality of care in CNP.

Persistent pelvic pain (PPP) is often regarded as multifactorial and complex. There is limited knowledge on how patients with PPP resemble and differ from those with persistent non-pelvic pain (PNPP). The specific aims of this study were to compare self-reported background and pain characteristics, affective symptoms, and quality of life at baseline between patients with PPP and those with PNPP at three multidisciplinary pain clinics in Norway, and to explore differences between men and women with PPP.