UW Testing New Device To Enhance Sleep

Seattle WA

26 October, 2021

4:38 PM

Description

SEATTLE — The University of Washington School of Medicine will serve as one of three sites for a new clinical trial to test a device designed to combat the effects of sleep deprivation, a project funded by the Department of Defense. UW officials said the study will include 90 participants and marks the first human trial for a "transcranial electrical stimulation headband" meant to "speed up and enhance the natural system of brain cleansing that occurs when we sleep." Jeffrey Iliff is a UW professor and one of the trial's principal investigators. He co-discovered the brain's glymphatic system, which scientists believe serves as the key function behind the restorative power of sleep, as cerebral spinal fluid washes through brain cells and cleans out waste. Sleep interruptions can disrupt that function and degrade cognitive functions and long-term brain health. "Improving glymphatic function, whether pharmacologically or by means of a device, could improve the cognitive effects of acute sleep deprivation or chronic sleep restriction," Iliff said. "Our lab's research over the past eight years on brain-waste clearance in animals has helped define glymphatic biology. Now we hope to see if we can use what we've learned to help people overcome poor or interrupted sleep and the brain dysfunction that follows." The Department of Defense provided $4.3 million for the project, with an eye on potential benefits for service members, researchers said. "If this works, it would have major implications for service members and potentially anyone with diagnosed sleep dysfunction," said Dawn Kernagis, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and one of the project's co-investigators. "It could also have implications for people with other neurological conditions, such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, and other dementias." The technology is officially called an Augmented Neural Oscillation Driver, or "AugNOD." Researchers describe it as an easy-to-use wireless headband that is applied before sleep to "monitor and improve slow wave sleep and glymphatic clearance." According to UW, researchers expect to have their first round of results in the spring.