Latest in Sleep Medicine News

Depression and other psychological disorders significantly affect cancer patients' quality of life and treatment outcomes. Despite this recognition, comprehensive data on antidepressant prescription patterns in cancer care settings throughout the world remain limited. This study aimed to analyze antidepressant prescription patterns among patients with cancer and variations across medical departments, pharmacological effects, clinical symptoms, and treatment modalities.

Allergic rhinitis (AR), a common pediatric condition, is an established contributor to impaired sleep and sleep-disordered breathing. However, data on the relative impact of disease severity versus control on sleep remain limited. We aimed to investigate the associations between AR severity, disease control, and treatment response and sleep quality in Turkish children.

Although the presence of carotid atherosclerosis plaque (CAP) is common in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), the detection rate remains uncertain.

Sleep onset (SO) marks the transition from wakefulness to a restorative state of sleep in the human brain. Recent studies suggest that the sleep onset process (SOP) is a back-and-forth progression that occurs before the brain reaches Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Stage 2 (NREM2) and that its duration is highly variable. Very short sleep onset latencies may increase the risk of accidents, while long SO may indicate poor sleep quality and insomnia. In this study, we investigated EEG power dynamics before the first NREM2 sleep epoch to identify potential predictors of SO ending and factors that differentiate fast from slow sleepers. We found that both groups exhibited an initial rise followed by a decline in alpha rhythms, resembling an inverted-U curve, in central and occipital regions. Compared to slow sleepers, fast sleepers showed a narrower, steeper alpha-power curve and an earlier rise in theta power. When examining the alpha-theta ratio, we found that, while slow sleepers followed an inverted‑U-shaped progression in central and occipital regions, fast sleepers' ratio decreased monotonically toward NREM2. Finally, we combined the alpha-theta ratio and the temporal rate of decline in the ratio to predict NREM2 onset using supervised learning. A fuzzy C-means (FCM) classifier achieved the highest accuracy (0.65). These findings indicate that neurodynamics during SOP are directly related to its duration. The alpha-theta ratio in central and occipital channels, together with its rate of decline, provides a compact and physiologically interpretable predictor of NREM2 onset. This predictive capability supports applications in both occupational safety and sleep health by enabling early detection of unintended sleep onset and allowing individuals to adopt proactive interventions when a prolonged SOP is anticipated.

To highlight the emerging role of Flash Mob Research (FMR) as an innovative, rapid, collaborative, and participatory methodology for conducting clinical research, and to discuss its potential applications, advantages, limitations, and future directions in evidence generation.

Use of long-term non-invasive ventilation (NIV) for children is increasing. Standard masks often fit poorly, causing significant complications. This pilot study aimed to evaluate a customised NIV mask/headgear.

To systematically synthesise the benefits and harms of add-on oral antihistamines for managing atopic dermatitis (eczema).

Shift work is associated with an increased risk of sleep disorders, yet tailored prevention and treatment programs remain rare and understudied. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is the first-line treatment for insomnia in the general population. We thus developed an anonymous online counselling service based on cognitive behavioral principles, adapted it to shift workers' needs, and evaluated it in a sample of German shift workers from various industries. This prospective, randomized, controlled superiority trial compares two parallel groups: an intervention group that received four personalized counselling messages and completed four weekly sleep diaries, and a waiting-list control-group that completed sleep diaries only during the four-week waiting period. In the Intention to Treat sample (n = 66), significant improvements were observed in both groups for the primary outcome, sleep efficiency, and for the secondary outcomes, symptoms of insomnia and depression. Daytime sleepiness did not improve in either group. However, improvements were not significantly greater in the treatment than in the control group. We can thus not demonstrate superiority of the counselling intervention over the control condition, where repeated sleep diary completion and study participation may themselves have had therapeutic effects. Limitations regarding time frame and sample size, as well as implications for research and practice are discussed.Trial registration: The study was registered with the German Clinical Trials Register DRKS under the trial ID DRKS00017777 ( https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00017777 ). Date of registration: 14.01.2020. This study was registered during the early stages of data collection. Of the 27 participants in the final sample, the first four had initiated data collection at the date of registration. No complete data sets were available at that time.

This study explored risk factors associated with depressive symptoms in older patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and assessed correlations of mean pulse oxygen saturation (MSpO) with depressive symptoms.

The use of herbal medical preparation (HMP) is rising among pediatric oncology patients, often to manage treatment-related symptoms. Their effectiveness remains uncertain, and the risk of herb-drug interactions is underestimated. Objectives were to evaluate the benefit-risk balance of commonly used herbal medicines in pediatric oncology and provide evidence-based recommendations.