Sleep Disturbance and Metabolic Syndrome

Sleep disturbances affect nearly 25% of the general population and nearly 50% of patients with cardio-metabolic disorders. Growing evidence indicate a strong link between insufficient sleep and increased risk for cardio-metabolic disorders. In this application, we propose to employ novel clinically applicable technology using sound waves to stimulate deep slow wave sleep (SWS), the stage of sleep that is most closely linked to cardio-metabolic function. This represents an exciting technological breakthrough because the acoustic system can be adapted to an individual’s sleep pattern. We hypothesize that enhancement of SWS will improve cardio-metabolic function in adults with disturbed sleep. The specific aims are: 1) To determine a dose and duration of stimulation required to achieve a 10% increase in SWS in middle age and older adults; 2) To determine the effect of the stimulus on cardio-metabolic function in patients with sleep disturbance and increased risk for cardio-metabolic disorders. The project proposes an innovative interdisciplinary approach that capitalizes on Northwestern Medicine's strengths of its sleep, cardiovascular and metabolic clinical and research centers to discover novel treatments for the interacting epidemics of sleep disorders and metabolic syndrome, and to establish a unique interdisciplinary center of excellence that combine these clinical and research programs.