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Get Paid to Sleep: 7 Legit Opportunities to Consider

Imagine getting paid to sleep. Isn’t this the dream? (Hah! Couldn’t resist.)

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Believe it or not, there truly are ways to make money while sleeping.

Opportunities may be rare, but they’re out there.

Interested?

Read on to learn all you need to know to make money in your sleep.

1. Get Paid to Sleep by Participating in Sleep Studies

What are sleep studies?

Getting involved in paid sleep studies is the best way to make money in your sleep.

Well, why are researchers conducting sleep studies in the first place?

Well, the majority of these sleep studies help develop and discover treatment options for sleep-related problems.

Mattress companies, health app developers, wearable fitness tracker manufacturers, and the like have studied and tracked people’s sleep habits in the past.

Hospitals even have entire departments dedicated to figuring out how to tackle sleep problems.

What’s cool is that these studies are currently being conducted in places all over the country.

And you might get hired even if you don’t have sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy, periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), or other sleep-related problems.

To get paid to join sleep studies, you first need to check if there are available trials locally (we list the sites further down this section).

Sleep studies look for volunteers within a specific age range, weight, or sometimes gender. In some cases, you should also have sleep apnea or other specific medical requirements to participate in the study.

Carefully read the criteria of each sleep study listed and make sure you’re eligible. Don’t even consider making up a sleep disorder or faking sleep difficulties just to get paid to sleep.

Learn what you’re signing up for before you fill out and send an application. Read up on the duration of in-hospital stays, payment terms, and other details.

Where to find sleep studies

Many sleep studies fall under paid clinical studies .

Here are a few websites and resources where you can search for sleep studies to participate in.

• ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials.gov is a Web-based resource where patients, health care professionals, lab researchers, and the general public can access information on clinical studies on a wide variety of diseases and conditions.

Use the search filters to find actively recruiting and about-to-recruit studies (as opposed to already completed studies) with the keyword “sleep.”

• CenterWatch

CenterWatch is one of the largest online databases of clinical trials, where patients and caregivers can get information on the latest clinical trials.

You can filter the search for the “sleep” keyword and specify your location to see a list of trials in your area.

Aside from this search function, you can also register to be a volunteer so you can be notified through email of any sleep-related trial coming up.

• Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic is known as one of the best medical centers in the world, integrating health care, education, and research.

Their Sleep Medicine division currently handles 14 open studies in various clinics in the country.

• Harvard’s Division of Sleep Studies

This branch of Harvard Medical School regularly recruits both completely healthy people and those suffering from sleep disorders to come to their research facility for testing.

Most studies pay you to sleep onsite overnight with pay ranging from $100 to $350 per night spent in their research labs.

Developed by Mass General Brigham Research, Rally is an online platform to connect the right subjects to the right paid sleep clinical research trials.

Like Harvard, the hospitals often hosting the studies on Rally are based in Boston.

If you’re based in Canada, this site is for you.

MedSleep clinics provide consultation and treatment for sleep disorders, as well as conduct research and clinical trials.

Currently, they’re managing clinical trials involving insomnia, weight loss, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and excessive daytime sleepiness.

What to Expect Once You Land a Spot in a Paid Sleep Study

If you’re accepted to the study, you don’t just begin sleeping at the facility. You still have to complete several tests and interviews, including:

• A physical exam — this involves the typical cup-peeing and blood-sampling tests
• A psychological exam — a test or interview so doctors can determine if you can handle the stress involved in the study
• Other sleep-related exams — to confirm your sleep problems (if any) and determine their severity

While there isn’t any actual sleeping just yet, you’d be pleased to know that you will still be paid for your time just by completing the final assessment phase.

Plus, the physical examination and lab procedures are normally free, so if anything, you get an idea of where your physical health is at.

After passing the exams, you’ll be given several assignments to complete.

This may include wearing a fitness device to track your activity, listing down food intake throughout the duration of your trial, keeping a sleep log, or other types of documentation that the study requires.

In most cases, you’ll be assigned a contact person who will tell you everything you need to know and remind you about these requirements. They will see you through the study and work with you so you don’t get kicked out of the trials.

What Happens During the Sleep Study

Once you start the actual study, you can’t expect the same quality of sleep you get at home in your own bed, with your own sheets, pillows, and blankets.

Here are a few reasons why you might have some trouble sleeping:

Medical devices

Be prepared for a couple of needles throughout the trial.

You will definitely get paid to sleep, but be aware that most participants are required to wear an IV, electrodes, and other medical devices in some parts of the study.

Bedpans may also be needed, since some phases of the study may require you to maintain a constant position.

Challenging sleep requirements

Aside from the IV and other medical devices you must wear, you might also be required to maintain a specific position while sleeping.

This can be challenging since we’re all used to our own sleeping positions, and being forced to change it up can lead to sleepless nights.

Don’t worry though, because you’ll be given all the details of the study before you begin.

So if staying in the same spot for several hours is something you just can’t do, you’d have the chance to back out before the sleep trial begins.

Can’t stand a few hours without your phone? How about not knowing the actual time?

As a participant in sleep studies, you’ll be cut off from the outside world.

This means no internet, no phone, no laptops, not even a clock.

In most cases, you won’t even have windows to know if it’s daytime or nighttime.

During the study, the doctors will only tell you what you need to know. They’re in charge of telling you if it’s night or day throughout the study’s observation period.

Depending on the details you’ve signed up for, sleep studies held in a facility may be as short as a couple of days to as long as a month. Most long-term studies are done half at the facility and half at the volunteer’s own homes.

6 Other Careers Where You Get Paid to Sleep

If you’re not a fan of being isolated or poked by needles, you can try to look for a job that pays you to sleep.

Some of these jobs may allow you to sleep overnight, while others may allow you to take a nap during your shift.

Here are a few to get you started.

2. Bed or Mattress Tester

This has got to be one of the most fun product testing jobs out there.

Professional mattress testers, or bed testers, test mattresses and sometimes bedding during the development of these products.

Mattress testers have to sleep on a prototype mattress and then fill out feedback forms or create a report on the comfort level of the mattress.

Aside from mattresses, other things you might be hired to test include blankets, pillows, comforters, and other sleep products.

The first website you should look at to find mattress tester jobs is FlexJobs , where they’ve carefully vetted the companies that list open positions.

If you aren’t successful in finding a job from FlexJobs, you can compile a list of mattress companies yourself through an internet search and initiate contact with them.

3. Hotel Mystery Shopper

Not only will you get paid to sleep with this job, but you’ll also get paid to sleep in style.

Now that the travel and tourism industries are picking back up, there is again a demand for hotel mystery shoppers.

As a hotel mystery shopper, you’ll be expected to act like regular clients throughout the entire process; booking the stay, checking in, staying the room, enjoying the amenities, and checking out.

But you’ll be working all throughout this process: evaluating the booking, check-in, and check-out processes, providing feedback on the staff and their service, observing the quality of the facilities and food, and other aspects of the hotel stay that employers will require.

Depending on the mystery shopper company , you’d either be provided a budget to work with or you’d be required to front the cost and then be reimbursed.

4. Overnight Pet Sitter

Traveling with pets can be stressful and may not always be feasible. Thus, pet owners are in the market for pet sitters who can provide services beyond the usual pet daycare.

They need people who can take care of their pets while they’re out of town.

Here’s where overnight pet sitters come in.

You can either work as a two-in-one house sitter and pet sitter to stay in their house and take care of both the house and their pet.

However, another option is that you can host pets in your own home overnight. This is sought after by pet owners who will be out for only a night, or for those who will be out for a few days but for whom house sitting won’t work.

When you host pets in your home, you get paid to sleep in your own home, in your own bed.

Start your gig search with pet sitting companies like Rover .

5. Overnight Caregiver

Some families may need babysitters for overnight shifts, while other families may need overnight carers for elderly, sick, or injured family members.

Overnight caregivers are generally allowed to sleep while their wards or patients sleep, as long as they are quickly alert to administer care during the night, such as giving night feedings to infants, dispensing time-sensitive medications to sick patients, or changing bandages of injured patients.

Other duties that may be expected from overnight caregivers include preparing snacks or simple meals, light housekeeping (e.g., tidying away toys, emptying trash, making beds, etc.), and providing companionship or activities.

Start your search for these jobs on websites like Care.com , which lists down all the local opportunities in your area.

6. Become a Sleep Professional

Studying sleep development is a wide field.

If you’re planning to switch careers or deciding on one, you can become a sleep professional. Here are some career options:

• Sleep coaching and consulting – Get certified as a sleep coach and help others improve their quality of sleep. You can provide consulting and coaching either face-to-face or remotely.
• Sleep app programmer, QA, engineer, etc. – Work in the sleep technology development industry, if you’re skilled in app development, quality assurance, engineering, and other relevant skills.

7. Make Sleep-themed Content

Sometimes, you don’t even need to go outside your home to get paid to sleep.

The internet gives anyone opportunities to turn your precious slumber into cold, hard cash. You can do this by:

• Creating a YouTube channel –  Unbox sleep assistance gadgets, discuss sleep techniques, and talk about other sleep-related topics. You can monetize your YouTube channel with ads.
• Starting a sleep-themed blog – Review sleep assistance products, educate people about sleep technologies, coach on sleeping, and talk about various sleep-related issues. You can monetize your blog with ads, sponsorships and affiliate marketing.
• Building a community on social media – You can monetize communities with memberships (for premium content), affiliate marketing, and sponsorships.

What makes these options great is that you can focus on just one, or do all 3 at the same time, which in turn, triples your sources of income.

Creating sleep-themed content online is also considered passive income , so as long as you’re consistently pushing out helpful content, you’re bound to make money from your work.

How Much Can You Earn From Sleeping?

Now that you have an idea of what jobs pay you to sleep, let’s take a look at how much you can potentially make from these jobs or gigs.

Sleep studies normally pay you per day or per task during the assessment phase, which includes the exams, interviews, and other assessment activities during the application period.

During the actual study in a sleep clinic, the average pay is around $4k to $6k for a 5-day to a week-long study. A 30-day study can go for $10k or more.

For rare cases when you can sleep at home, the average pay is around $150 to $200.

As for the other jobs and gigs on the list, the pay varies widely depending on the company hiring, how long you need to do the job for, and how many other factors.

Get Paid to Sleep Today!

It doesn’t have to be a pipe dream anymore; you can now really get paid to sleep.

Go through the opportunities on your list, find the ones that fit your personality and lifestyle (and maybe sleep disorder) and dream your way toward that cash!

Did you know you can also get paid to cuddle and get paid to do nothing ?

READ THIS NEXT: The EASIEST ways to make money online. See how.

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DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

• Participate in Research Studies

Paid Research Opportunities

The following studies are recruiting participants and pay for your time. Read the descriptions and requirements. If you are interested, email the researcher asking to participate. Information on some studies is also posted on bulletin boards in Swift Hall.

Currently Available Studies

Emotional processing in friendships.

Do you or your friend struggle with self-confidence? Help us research how close friends talk and support each other! If you AND one of your close friends are between 18 and 40 years and willing to participate together, you may be eligible. You and your friend can each earn up to $125. For this study, you and one of your close, same-sex friends will participate together at Northwestern’s medical school campus in downtown Chicago. You will complete an interview, a variety of questionnaires, and several tasks with your friend while having your brain activity recorded using EEG. Many of the procedures will be completed online rather than in person. This study will take approximately 5 hours to complete, splitting into 2 days. You and your friend will each be paid $25/hour for a total of $125 (the total amount will depend on how long your visit takes). Additionally, you will also be compensated for parking or CTA travel for attending the study visit.

If you are interested, please fill out this brief survey to see if you are eligible ( https://redcap.nubic.northwestern.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=487MNAJAMWMLC9AM ). If you have more questions, feel free to email the us at [email protected] or call/text at 312-884-9797! A team member will get back to you shortly. Principal Investigator : Dr. Stewart Shankman

Study Title : Emotional Processing in Friendships

IRB# : STU00218814

The HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD)

8/6/2024 

The Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences is recruiting families with babies 9 to 30 months of age to participate in the pilot phase of a study investigating early brain and child development.

The visit will consist of a lullaby MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) while baby is sleeping. No dyes/contrast or sedation are used. MRIs are safe and routinely used in research settings. The visit will take approximately 2.5 – 3 hours and families are compensated $115 for their time. The visit will take place on Northwestern’s Chicago campus. Parking validation or transportation reimbursement will be provided along with childcare (if needed for other children).

For more information or to sign up, please email HBCD Study Manager, Brianna Sinche, at  [email protected] .

Study Title : The HEALthy Brain and Child Development Study (HBCD) Principal Investigators : Drs. Lauren Wakschlag and Elizabeth Norton IRB# : STU00217118

Play games for brain science!

The Dynamic Brain Lab at Northwestern University is recruiting volunteers to participate in research on the brain dynamics underlying memory and cognitive control across the human lifespan. We are recruiting adults and children for multiple studies.

Participants will be compensated at $30/hour.

The research will take place in downtown Chicago.

Follow this link for more information, and to sign up: https://redcap.nubic.northwestern.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=93P9HHRYXXDMLYTD

Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Johnson, PhD

Study Title: Behavioral and neural mechanisms of memory across the lifespan

IRB# : STU00216728

Social Interactions Study

We are seeking young people to participate in a research project at Northwestern University about how the relationships between social networks, personality, and unusual thoughts some people may have fluctuate over a brief period. The goal of this research is to increase understanding of how social interactions influence mental health concerns and/or mental health concerns influence social interactions.

You may be eligible for this study if you are between 12 and 34 years of age. The study would entail coming in for 3 visits each approximately one week apart, and you will be compensated $25 per hour for your participation. During these sessions, you will complete questionnaires about unusual thoughts and experiences, mental health symptoms, and your social network and a brief interview with a researcher about your social life.

If you are interested, please email us at [email protected] , and a member of our team will get back to you shortly.

Principal investigator : Dr. Vijay Mittal

Study Title : ORBITZ

IRB# : STU00203263

Individual Differences in Talker Identification

The SoundBrain Lab is seeking participants for a research study investigating how our brains identify and categorize different talkers/voices.

You may be eligible if:

• You are between 18-35 years old.
• You are a native speaker of English
• You have no experience with Mandarin Chinese.
• You have normal hearing (no hearing loss).
• You have no history of neurological or psychological disorders.
• You can travel to Northwestern’s Evanston campus.

Participation includes:

• Hearing screening
• This measure consists of resting your chin on a cushioned platform fixed to the desk you’re sitting at. You will be instructed to fix your gaze on a computer screen in front of you and respond to various sounds played over headphones.

All measures are non-invasive. Participation requires two 1-hour visits. These visits may be on the same day, separated by at least two hours, or on consecutive days. Participants will be compensated at $15/hour.

 If you are interested, please email [email protected] for more information.

Principal Investigator : Bharath Chandrasekaran, PhD

Study Title : Neural Systems in Auditory and Speech Categorization

IRB# : STU00219433 

Psychosis Risk Outcomes Network Study

We are seeking young people who are concerned about recent changes in mood, thinking or behavior. This research project aims to increase understanding of mental health concerns in young people and how to prevent the development of a more serious mental illness such as psychosis.

You may be eligible for the study if you meet any of the following criteria:

• Ages 12 - 30
• Noticing a recent change in thinking, behavior, or experiences, such as:
• Confusion about what is real or imaginary
• Feeling not in control of your own thoughts of ideas
• Feeling suspicious or paranoid
• Having experiences that may not be real, such as hearing sounds or seeing things that may not be there
• Having trouble communicating clearly

The study would entail visits over a 2-year period, and you would be paid $30 per hour for your participation.  Eligible participants will be asked to come in for various assessments including:

• clinical interviews
• biological assessments (MRI & EEG brain scans; blood and saliva testing)
• cognitive testing

If you are interested, please email us at [email protected]  or fill out this online eligibility survey , and a member of our team will get back to you shortly.

Principal investigator: Dr. Vijay Mittal Study Title: ProNET IRB #: STU00215145

Good at sleeping?

The Cognitive Neuroscience Lab in the Department of Psychology at Northwestern is recruiting volunteers to participate in sleep research ( STU00034353 )

 Compensation is provided for studies ($12.50/hr)

You can participate in Chicago or at our sleep lab on the Evanston campus.

 To sign up and learn more about the The Paller Lab, visit:    www.northwestern.edu/people/kap/apply  

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ken Paller

Study Title: Strategically strengthening declarative memories during sleep: Learning, Creative Problem-Solving, REM Sleep, and Dreaming

IRB# STU00034353-MOD0044

Participate in Research

Your lived experience is invaluable.

People who volunteer to participate in sleep and sleep disorders research play a critical role in advancing science and medicine. Without volunteers willing to participate, clinical research studies simply would not be possible.

There are various ways to get involved in research—from taking online surveys to participating in focus groups or enrolling in clinical trials. We are sharing links to various sleep and sleep disorder research opportunities and clinical trials here to help raise awareness about clinical research efforts in our community. Not everyone will be eligible for every study; please click the links to read details and follow up with the research teams directly with any questions.

Current Sleep and Sleep Disorder Research Opportunities:

Alkermes: vibrance-2 study.

The Vibrance-2 Study is researching an investigational oral study drug for the potential treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness symptoms. Adults 18-70 years of age with narcolepsy type 2 are invited to learn more about this important sleep disorder research. Learn more.

Sleep Consortium – Data Collection Program

By participating in this Sleep Data Collection Portal, you can begin the first step in collecting and sharing your insights and making your data available to researchers and other research partners now and well into the future. You will have complete ownership of your data and control over who may access it. By generating the most comprehensive patient-driven data platform, we can accelerate research and the development of new drugs, devices, or other therapies. You hold the key to unlock future discoveries.

Narcolepsy & Pregnancy Research Survey

Narcolepsy researchers are conducting a survey study of adults with type 1 narcolepsy and recent pregnancies in order to assess the impact of narcolepsy on pregnancy, and vice versa. This study is open to adults (age 18+) with type 1 narcolepsy (with cataplexy) who have given birth within the last 2 years and live in the United States or Canada.

Alkermes: Vibrance-1 Study

The Vibrance-1 Study is researching an investigational oral study drug for the potential treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness symptoms. Adults 18-70 years of age with narcolepsy type 1 are invited to learn more about this important sleep disorder research.

Mayo Clinic Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH) Research Study

Mayo Clinic researchers on the Arizona and Florida campuses are enrolling participants in a research study on Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of low sodium oxybate (LSO) on total sleep time as measured by 24-hour polysomnography. Participant eligibility includes age, gender, type and stage of disease, and previous treatments or health concerns. Learn more and contact the study team to discuss study eligibility and potential participation at mayo.edu .

Jazz Pharmaceuticals: XYLO Study

The XYLO Study is a clinical study looking at blood pressure in people with narcolepsy. To take part, you must be taking or will be taking a high-sodium oxybate. Some people in this study will participate from home (virtual participants). They will have some home visits with study staff and some telemedicine visits by phone and/or video call. Other people will visit a study center (clinic participants) and will have some telemedicine visits. Please visit the study website at www.xyloforbp.com to learn more.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals: DUET Study

The DUET Study will evaluate daytime and nighttime effects of XYWAV® (low-sodium oxybate oral solution), also known as JZP258, in people with idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) or narcolepsy (Type 1 or Type 2). To learn more about the DUET Study, contact Clinical Trial Disclosure and Transparency at 215-832-3750 or [email protected].

Jazz Pharmaceuticals and IQVIA: NT1, NT2, or IH

Jazz Pharmaceuticals and IQVIA are currently looking for individuals (≥18 years of age) who have been diagnosed with NT1, NT2, or IH to take part in a paid research interview study. This study will help researchers learn more about what it is like to live with NT1, NT2, or IH, including: impacts on daily life, a better understanding of NT1, NT2, or IH, and how to best measure symptoms and impacts of NT1, NT2, or IH.

NAPS Consortium on REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

The NAPS Consortium on REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) has established a registry for individuals living with RBD, partners and family of someone diagnosed with RBD, and those wanting to learn more about RBD. This information is used to identify study participants, assist care teams providing care to individuals with RBD, and to study RBD treatments and outcomes.

PPMI: Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative

The Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) is recruiting people with REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD). PPMI is a landmark study sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation. It aims to better understand and measure Parkinson’s disease, including before movement symptoms begin. This information could lead to new treatments.  Through PPMI, scientists also could learn more about the biology and experience of RBD.

To learn more and get started, call 866-525-PPMI or email  [email protected]

KP1077.D01: A Clinical Study in Adults with Idiopathic Hypersomnia (IH)

NOW ENROLLING adults (18 years and older) with IH. This study is being conducted by KemPharm, Inc to evaluate the safety and efficacy of KP1077 capsules in patients with IH. KP1077 capsules contain serdexmethylphenidate (SDX), a prodrug of dexmethylphenidate. It is an investigational medication for treating excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) and other symptoms of IH, including sleep inertia (difficulty of waking up in the morning), and brain fog (lack of focus and mental clarity; forgetfulness and confusion).

CANADA: Studying brain profiles of narcolepsy type 1, type 2 and IH

To better understand the brain of people with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, Concordia University (Montreal – Canada), is looking for patients that are willing to participate in scientific research. The goal of this study is to learn more about the causes and brain effects of hypersomnia. We are currently looking for people with narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia that are between 18-64 years old. It may be required to temporarily stop medication to participate (e.g. 2 days for stimulants) and compensation for participation and travel expenses will be offered. For more information, please contact [email protected] .

Boston Children’s Hospital – Pediatric Narcolepsy Online Survey

Currently there is no clinical tool to assess the broad symptoms of pediatric narcolepsy and their impact on daily functioning. We are a group of researchers from different academic hospitals (Boston Children’s Hospital, Stanford University, Geisinger Medical Center, The Hospital for Sick Children, and National Jewish Health) testing a pediatric narcolepsy patient reported outcomes tool to assess pediatric narcolepsy symptoms and their effect on daily functioning and quality of life. Our goal is to develop a clinical survey that can improve the care of pediatric narcolepsy.

Open Enrollment for TENOR Research Study

The Transition Experience of persons with Narcolepsy taking Oxybate in the Real-world (TENOR) study is enrolling individuals with narcolepsy who are transitioning from Xyrem to Xywav within the previous or upcoming 7 days. This study is entirely virtual and was designed with the help of a patient advisory board and input from narcolepsy specialists. As a part of your participation, you will receive reports summarizing your self-reported data throughout the study. At the end of the study, you will receive a consolidated report of your personal data.

ClinicalTrials.gov

Looking for more opportunities? ClinicalTrials.gov is a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies conducted around the world. You can search for actively recruiting studies that you may be able to participate in or learn about new interventions/treatments that are being considered.

Thank you to all those who consider participating in sleep and sleep disorder research and clinical trials. Your efforts help to build a brighter future! 

Masks Strongly Recommended but Not Required in Maryland

Respiratory viruses continue to circulate in Maryland, so masking remains strongly recommended when you visit Johns Hopkins Medicine clinical locations in Maryland. To protect your loved one, please do not visit if you are sick or have a COVID-19 positive test result. Get more resources on masking and COVID-19 precautions .

• Vaccines  
• Masking Guidelines
• Visitor Guidelines  

Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine

Sleep center research program.

Johns Hopkins has a rich history of sleep-related research that complements our clinical mission . Today we continue this tradition, studying everything from molecular control of sleep in fruit flies, to new treatments for sleep apnea.  Our sleep researchers come from diverse backgrounds in endocrinology, neurology, psychiatry, and pulmonary medicine.  For more information about participating in clinical trials, please contact Mariah Chaney ( [email protected] ) or call 410-550-2233 . If you are interested in using our resources and expertise for sleep research, visit the Center for Interdisciplinary Sleep Research and Education ( CISRE ).

Clinical Sleep Research   Basic Sleep Research  

Clinical Sleep Research

Actigraphic assessment of sleep quality in the a4 trial.

The A4 Trial studies anti-amyloid therapy for prevention of cognitive decline in cognitively healthy participants with brain amyloid on PET scans. This study adds wrist actigraphy to assess links of sleep and rest/activity rhythms with amyloid burden, and the effect of anti-amyloid therapy on sleep and rhythms. Team:  Paul Rosenberg, Adam Spira, Mark Wu, Vadim Zipunnikov Funding:  1R01AG049872-01  (MPIs: Rosenberg & Spira)  07/15/2015 – 03/31/2020

The ARIC Study of Midlife Sleep and Late-Life Brain Amyloid

Dementia and cognitive impairment are growing public health concerns. Knowledge of the importance of sleep-disordered breathing in the development of dementia, and particularly in the development of Alzheimer’s type of dementia (associated with β-amyloid deposition and neurodegeneration) is critical as it may lead to distinct avenues for development of therapies to prevent dementia or slow its progression. We propose to study the extent to which sleep-disordered breathing is associated with neuroimaging evidence of amyloid deposition, brain atrophy, and cognitive decline almost 20 years later.

Team:  Adam Spira, Rebecca Gottesman, Mark Wu, Naresh Punjabi, Vadim Zipunnikov Funding:  1RF1AG050745 (MPIs: Spira & Gottesman) 06/01/2016 – 05/31/2021

Deriving and validating sleep phenotypes from wrist activity monitors

This project evaluates data from consumer wrist activity monitors in order to characterize sleep and circadian tendencies in the general population. Based on Under Armour wrist actigraphy monitoring, the project has developed novel tools and algorithms for classifying common sleep disorders in the general population. It is designed to provide tools and insights that help end-users improve their sleep and related outcomes including athletic performance, injury rates, cold susceptibility and general well-being. The project is currently being extended to a group of collegiate athletes in whom time constraints from practice schedules and academic and social demands can impact on sleep health.

Team:  Alan Schwartz, Luu Pham, Frank Sgambati Funding:  Under Armour Links:  Hopkins and Under Armour Bring Science to Connected Fitness

Genetic and Epigenetic Links of Sleep to Alzheimer’s and Other Aging-Related Diseases

This research will identify epigenetic modifications and changes in gene/protein expression associated with poor sleep and sleep-disordered breathing; the subset of those changes linked to AD biomarkers, measures of brain aging, and cognitive impairment; and links of poor sleep and SDB with accelerated cellular aging.

Team:  Adam Spira, Mark Wu, Brion Maher, Susan Resnick, Luigi Ferrucci Funding:  Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award

Hemodynamic Responses to Upper Airway Obstruction in Marfan Syndrome

Upper airway obstruction (UAO) during sleep may be a source of cardiovascular stress in persons with Marfan syndrome. We are examining the effects of nocturnal UAO on hemodynamic function as well as on aortic and cardiac wall stress in persons with Marfan syndrome having haploinsufficient and dominant negative genotypes. This project will be the first to uncover UAO as a new mechanism for increased cardiovascular morbidity in Marfan syndrome and will also demonstrate the effect of CPAP treatment as a potential intervention for adverse cardiovascular events in Marfan syndrome.

Team : Mudiaga Sowho, Enid Neptune, Jonathan Jun, Susheel Patil, Gretchen MacCarrick, Hartmut Schneider. Funding : NIH- 5 T32 HL 110952-5 (07/17- 06/20)​

High altitude sleep research

Many populations reside at high altitude and are exposed to chronic low oxygen levels. During sleep, oxygenation plummets even further and triggers breathing pauses. We are studying the impact of altitude and low oxygen levels during sleep as part of the  CRONICAS Cohort study , which has a high altitude site at Puno, Peru (3825 m, or 2.5 miles above sea level). We found that  the prevalence of sleep apnea increased in proportion to reductions in oxygen levels during wakefulness  and that patterns of oxygenation during sleep predicted worsening glucose control and chronic mountain sickness. Our current work focuses on developing inexpensive and readily deployable treatments for sleep apnea and low oxygen levels in highlanders.

Team : Luu Pham, Alan Schwartz, William Checkley, Dina Goodman Funding : NIH  (Schwartz & Checkely) 1R34HL135360-01

Lymphocyte CpG methylation changes and brain pathology in Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

Early exposure to iron deficiency during pregnancy and in infancy and childhood appears to increase risk of developing restless leg syndrome (RLS), a common debilitating disease, later in life. Epigenetic changes may provide an important link between prior iron deficiency and later disease development.  Epigenetic changes in CpG methylation in lymphocytes is the primary source of DNA. As iron deficiency anemia is associated with 6-fold increase in RLS expression, we utilize a population of women with iron deficiency anemia in which we delineate two groups: disease-susceptible and disease-resistant groups.

Team : Christopher Earley, Richard Allen, Satish Shanbhag, Rahki Naik, Peter van Zijl, Xi Li, Zachary Kaminsky. Coordinators : Alaina Hergenroeder and Emily Rost Funding : NIH R01 NS101283 (Earley) 6/1/17-5/31/22

Maternal Sleep and Sleep Disturbance in Relation to the Developing Fetus

Sleep disturbances and sleep apnea have been implicated in pregnancy complications including gestational diabetes and preeclampsia. However, limited attention has been directed at understanding how maternal sleep disruption directly affects the fetus. We are examining immediate and persistent effects of maternal sleep disruption and maternal sleep-disordered breathing during pregnancy on the developing fetus.

Team : Janet DiPietro, Grace Pien, Janice Henderson, Frank Sgambati, Heather Watson Funding:  NIH R01HD079411 (DiPietro) 7/7/14-6/30/19

Metabolic Consequences of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea patients are at increased risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but  mechanisms are unclear .  Our laboratory is studying effects of sleep apnea on nocturnal metabolism sleeping with or without wearing their CPAP.  Using this approach,  we discovered that OSA increases plasma free fatty acids (FFA) and glucose during sleep .   Now, we are examining the underlying mechanisms and consequences of OSA-induced FFA elevation using techniques such as beta blockade and stable isotopes.

Team : Jonathan Jun, Chenjuan Gu, Robert Wolfe (UAMS), Elisabet Borsheim (UAMS), Alice Ryan (Univ of Maryland) Funding : R01HL135483 (Jun) 2/1/2018 – 1/1/2023; R03HL138068 (Jun) 9/1/17 – 7/31/19 Links :

Enrollment:  https://is.gd/miicstudy

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02824263

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03049306

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/johns_hopkins_bayview/research_clinical_trials/clinical_trials/sleep.html

Metabolic effects of eating late dinner ("Dinner Time" Study)

The timing of meals may be important for weight control and heart health. Eating meals later in the day is linked with obesity and cardiovascular disease.  We hypothesize that eating close to bedtime may delay the oxidation of fat impair nocturnal metabolism.  To test this hypothesis we are performing a randomized trial of eating dinner before or after dim light melatonin onset (DLMO).

Team : Jonathan Jun, Chenjuan Gu, Daisy Duan, Luu Pham, Vsevolod Polotsky Funding : Pilot Links:  https://dinnertimestudy.net/

Metabolic effects of hypoxia

Sleep apnea causes periods of low oxygenation. Although sleep apnea is strongly linked to metabolic diseases, the mechanisms for development of these metabolic diseases is unknown. Low oxygen levels during wakefulness increases blood glucose and markers of inflammation. The effects of low oxygen during sleep on metabolism have not been well studied. We are recruiting healthy volunteers in a study to examine the effects of breathing low oxygen on metabolism and gene expression in inflammatory pathways during sleep.

Team : Luu Pham and Alan Schwartz Funding : The American Heart Association (Pham) 07/01/17-06/30/19, 17MCPRP3367111

Poor Sleep, Altered Circadian Rhythms, and Alzheimer’s Disease

Poor sleep may contribute to cognitive decline and progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. To study this phenomenon we will collect wrist actigraphy data for seven 24-hour periods in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which contains repeated measures of cognition with adjudication of cognitive status, [11C]-Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) positron emission tomography (PET)-measured β-amyloid, and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-measured atrophy. Participants who are cognitively normal at baseline and complete PiB PET will also complete polysomnography, permitting us to determine the extent to which poor sleep and altered rest/activity rhythms are prospectively associated with neuroimaging biomarkers of β-amyloid deposition and neurodegeneration, and with cognitive decline.

Team:  Adam Spira, Mark Wu, Naresh Punjabi, Vadim Zipunnikov, Ciprian Crainiceanu, Susan Resnick, Eleanor Simonsick, Luigi Ferrucci Funding:  1R01AG050507-01            (Spira)                         09/01/2015 – 05/31/2020

Randomized, placebo-controlled trial of ferric carboxymaltose in Restless Legs Syndrome patients with iron-deficiency anemia.

RLS is increased in prevalence and severity in patients that have iron deficiency anemia.  This study examines (1) whether intravenous iron therapy can more effectively improve symptoms and (2) whether treating the symptoms is more important than simply treating the anemia. This is a three-phase clinical trial. Phase I: randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 6-week assessment of treatment with 1500 mg ferric carboxymaltose. Phase II: open label, treatment with 1500 mg ferric carboxymaltose in non-responders in Phase I. Phase III: 46-week follow up with intermittent treatment with 750 mg ferric carboxymaltose if patients have a return of RLS symptoms and their ferritin < 300 ug/l.

Team:  Christopher Earley (PI), Richard Allen, Satish Shanbhag, Rahki Naik, Peter van Zijl, Xi Li. Coordinators: Emily Rost and Alaina Hergenroeder. Funding : Luitpold Pharmaceutical, Inc. Protocol VIT 15042. IND #73076 Links :  NCT02826681

Sleep patterns, delirium and mobility in hospitalized children

Sleep fragmentation is common in children admitted to the hospital during a time of neurocognitive development. Sleep disturbances that begin in the Pediatric ICU may have lasting impacts including psychological and psychiatric morbidities. Abnormal sleep-wake patterns may increase the risk of delirium and also decreases patient participation in early mobilization activities. We are investigating the impact of sleep fragmentation on delirium incidence and early mobilization. In addition, we are collaborating with Under Armour to develop an intervention utilizing fitness trackers for adolescents in the hospital.

Team:  Sapna Kudchadkar, Tracie Walker, Aaron Hsu, Sean Barnes Partners/funding:  1R21HD093369-01,  Under Armour

Ketogenic diet for Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (KETOHS)

Obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) leads to carbon dioxide elevation in a subset of obese patients.  There are few effective treatments for OHS.  In this clinical trial we are examining whether OHS can be improved by a short-term ketogenic diet.  Interested patients can apply using this survey link: https://redcap.link/ketohs

Team: Jonathan Jun, Chenjuan Gu, Luu Pham, Vsevolod Polotsky

Links: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04108819

Enrollment:  https://redcap.link/ketohs

Basic Sleep Research

Asthma, high fat diet, and particulate matter.

Obesity or a high-fat diet can aggravate airway hyper-reactivity and asthma.  Furthermore, air pollution with particulate matter can induce or exacerbate asthma.  Our laboratory is investigating the interaction of particulate matter with diet on airway physiology and inflammation in mice.  We hope that this project will lead to an understanding of the relationship between asthma, nutrition, and air quality and provide possible targets for intervention.

Team : Seva Polotsky Funding : P50 ES018176 (Hansel) 9/1/15-08/31/19 Links :  https://www.polotskylab.net/

Chemogenetic stimulation of hypoglossal neurons to probe targets for sleep apnea therapy

The pathogenesis of sleep apnea has been linked to a defect in neuromuscular control of the pharynx.   Our laboratory has pioneered a technique to augment upper airway patency by deploying designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drug (DREADD) in the hypoglossal motor neuron of mice.   Activation of the DREADDs dilated the pharynx.  We are now refining our technique by improving the specificity of DREADD delivery, using Cre-Lox technology and retrograde viral transfection techniques.

Team : Thomaz Fleury, Huy Pho, Seva Polotsky Funding : R01HL138932 (Polotsky) 8/4/17 – 6/30/21; 16POST31000017 (Fluery) 7/1/16 -6/30/18 Links :  https://www.polotskylab.net/

Hypoglossal stimulation as a treatment for sleep apnea

Airway narrowing and closure leading to sleep apnea occurs because of an excessive decrease in genioglossus muscle tone.   Thus, OSA may be treated by delivering electrical stimulation of the hypoglossal nerve, which controls the tone of the tongue muscle during sleep.  Already,  one such device has been tested in clinical trials  and is approved for OSA treatment in highly selected patients who cannot tolerate CPAP.   However, existing technology only stimulates the genioglossus muscle in a non-targeted manner which may limit its effectiveness.  Our laboratory is examining the effects of selective stimulation of various lingual muscles, singly or in combination, on upper airway function.

Team : Luu Phan, Vsevolod Polotsky, Thomaz Fleury Funding :  lmThera, Inc. Links :  https://www.polotskylab.net/

Leptin and control of breathing

Leptin is a hormone produced by adipose tissue that regulates appetite and metabolism.  Leptin deficient mice develop obesity.  It was later discovered that  these mice also chronically hypoventilate , and replacing leptin improved ventilation and sensitivity to carbon dioxide.  Our lab also showed that  replacing leptin improves upper airway function  and  sleep disordered breathing  in mice.  Now, our lab is exploring signaling pathways of leptin in the brain to localize possible therapeutic targets.

Team : Huy Pho, Seva Polotsky Funding : R01 HL128970 (Polotsky) 8/10/15 – 5/31/19 Links :  https://www.polotskylab.net/

Leptin signaling in the carotid body

Leptin reduces food intake and increases metabolic rate.  However, leptin may be a “double-edged sword” since it can also increase blood pressure.  Our lab discovered that leptin binds to receptors on the carotid body and can increase blood pressure by activating channels in these cells.   Now, we are using viral transfection to manipulate leptin receptor expression in the carotid body, responses to leptin infusion.

Team : Mi-Kyung Shin, Seva Polotsky, James Sham Funding : R01HL133100 (Polotsky) 7/1/16 – 2/29/20 Links :  https://www.polotskylab.net/

Molecular and Circuit Mechanisms Encoding Homeostatic Sleep Drive

Prolonged wakefulness (such as under conditions of sleep deprivation) is known to lead to increased rebound sleep. Our lab identified  a novel neural circuit that encodes sleep drive  in the fruit fly  Drosophila melanogaster . We hypothesize that many signaling mechanisms resulting from behavioral states or environmental changes may act upon this circuit to suppress or increase sleep drive. Our team is currently working on identifying and characterizing the upstream signaling inputs and downstream targets of this homeostatic sleep circuit, as well as the molecular underpinnings of decision-making by this neural circuit. Findings arising from this research will shed light on the mechanisms of homeostatic regulation of sleep.

Team:  Margaret Ho, Masashi Tabuchi, Ian Blum, Mark Wu Funding:  NIH R01NS100792-01A1 (Wu) Links:   https://www.markwulab.net/

Participate in Sleep Research

Opportunities to participate in sleep research, metabolomics of obstructive sleep apnea study.

If you are a healthy adult aged 30-75 without diabetes, you may be eligible for our study. We are looking for patients with newly diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) but have NOT started treatment yet (such as using a CPAP machine). Our goal is to study whether sleep apnea and treatment with CPAP affects biomarkers in the blood.  There are 3  study visits over 7 months. Procedures include wearing an activity monitor, a home sleep study, questionnaires, doing an attention task, fasting blood draws and 24 hour diet recall, conducted at either the Center for Human Phenomic Science (Penn Presbyterian) or the Penn Sleep Clinic (3624 Market Street). Participants will be compensated for their time.  

For more information, please contact Kristie at (215) 615-4112 or   [email protected] .

New CPAP Users

If you are 18 years or older and are new to CPAP, then you may qualify to participate in the survey study. All new PAP users, with or without claustrophobia, are welcome to participate.  

For more information, please contact Bruno at [email protected]    

Patients with Cardiac Conditions Using CPAP or Will Be Starting CPAP

We are looking for adults with cardiac disease and are using CPAP or will be initiating CPAP treatment. To participate in this study you will need to sign this consent to allow us to review your medical chart in a secure manner. You will also answer a few simple questions about your sleep and opinion on this method of evaluation for SDB and fill out a questionnaire regarding your daytime sleepiness. Finally, we will check your neck size. On average, this process should take less than 10 minutes to complete. We will review your medical record and monitor your CPAP use through the wireless modem for the next 4 years. The coordinator may contact you by phone after you leave the hospital if we have more questions

For more information, please contact Shruti at 510-908-0381 or  [email protected]

Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Law Enforcement Officers

If you are a member of the Philadelphia Police Department, have worked as an officer for at least 3 years, and do not plan to retire in the next three years, then you may qualify to participate. The study includes screening for Obstructive Sleep Apnea and managing it if apnea is diagnosed. The study is funded by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

For more information, please contact Haideliza at [email protected]  

Surgical Treatments for Obstructive Sleep Apnea

The Sleep Surgery Division offers opportunities to participate in research relating to Obstructive Sleep Apnea testing and Treatments.

For more information, please use this link: https://oto.med.upenn.edu/research-clinical-trials/clinical-research/sleep-surgery/raj-c-dedhia-md-mscr/

Insomnia Studies

The Behavioral Sleep Medicine Group offers opportunities to participate in research studies- mostly related to Insomnia.

For more information, please use this link: https://www.med.upenn.edu/bsm/research_participate.html   or please visit  http://sleeplessinphilly.com  or call (215) 7 - INSOMN (or  215-746-7666 ).

Circadian, Sleep Deprivation, and Other Studies

The Unit for Experimental Psychiatry (Division of Sleep And Chronobiology) offers opportunities to participate in research.

For more information, please use this link:   https://www.med.upenn.edu/uep/participate_research.html

Sleep Problems, Depression, and PTSD Studies

The Sleep Neurobiology and Psychopathology (SNaP) Lab offers opportunities to participate in research.

For more information, please use this link: https://www.med.upenn.edu/snaplab/participate.html  

Other Clinical Trials and Research at Penn

For more information, please use these links:

• Current Clinical Trials & Research Studies  
• Clinical Trials at Penn Medicine

Pediatric Sleep Research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

CHOP offers several opportunities for children to participate in research through  CHOP Sleep Center . A few of the actively recruiting studies are list below:

• Investigating socio-ecological factors in pediatric sleep-related health disparities  The purpose of this project is to identify factors at the individual child, family, healthcare setting, neighborhood, and broader socio-cultural levels that contribute to racial disparities in sleep-disordered breathing consequences and timely therapeutic options in Black and White children with SDB. Contact info: Mary Anne at [email protected]
• Positive Airway Pressure For The Treatment Of The Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome In Children With Down Syndrome   The purpose of this proposal is to conduct a mixed methods research study during the R61 phase that will inform the randomized controlled trial to be performed during the R33 phase, during which participants will be randomized to a 6-month intensive behavioral intervention (INT) to improve PAP adherence vs standard clinical care (CON) and undergo standardized evaluations of behavior, attention, quality of life, family-relevant outcomes identified during the R61 phase, PAP adherence, and health care utilization at baseline, 6, and 12 months. Contact Ruth at [email protected]
• Home Sleep Apnea Testing and Neurocognitive Testing for Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Young Adults with Down Syndrome  The purpose of this study is to conduct neurocognitive testing in young adults with Down syndrome in addition to HSAT and in-lab PSG obtain estimates for a larger clinical trial.  Contact info: Ahtish at [email protected]
• Comparing Home Sleep Apnea Testing and In Lab Sleep Testing : The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is currently enrolling individuals with Down syndrome between the ages of 16-30 years . This study is aiming to compare at home sleep studies and in lab sleep studies; participants will be asked to complete both kinds of sleep studies and give their feedback on the experiences. For more information, please contact the study team at 215-490-8905 or  Ahtish at [email protected]  

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Research Study Subject Recruitment

For a complete list of sleep research studies at Brigham and Women's Hospital, please visit Rally .

Other studies that are recruiting participants can be reviewed at the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine research subject recruitment page .

Learn more about Brigham and Women's Hospital

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Welcome to the University of Oregon Sleep Study

What’s involved?

All participants will complete interviews about their sleep health and mental health, track their sleep at home for 1 week, and make 2 visits to the UO Sleep Lab. Lab visits include an MRI brain scan, computer and performance tasks, physiological assessments, and questionnaires. You may also be asked to spend the evening and overnight in the sleep lab so we can measure your sleep and circadian rhythms. Some participants will also keep a regular sleep schedule for 2 weeks and make 1 more visit to the UO Sleep Lab. Participants can earn up to $730 for study participation.

Who’s Eligible

To be eligible for the UO Sleep Study, you must be willing to stay in the Sleep Lab for at least 5 hours on 1-2 afternoons and potentially overnight, complete short daily surveys for 1-3 weeks, and keep a regular sleep schedule for 2 weeks, if asked. You must also be willing to share information about your mental health, complete an MRI scan and other laboratory tasks, and provide samples of your saliva and urine. All study data are private and protected – we do not share personal identifiable information with others.

Research Support

Major financial support for this research is provided by the National Institutes of Health. Administrative and material support for this research is provided by the Center for Translational Neuroscience and the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon.

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• Extra Income Ideas

8 Great Ways To Get Paid To Sleep

July 13, 2024 by Jane Leave a Comment

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Want a chill and easy way to earn extra cash? Check out these sleep studies that pay! Sleeping is a unique way to earn extra cash without hassle.

Sleeping on the job is a huge no-no—well, that’s unless you’re getting paid to sleep. In this case, you can lie down, relax, doze off to slumberland, and make extra money while you sleep . 

It sounds like a dream, right? It’s probably one of the low-stress side hustles you can find today!

Well, I’ve learned a few interesting ways to get paid to sleep, and the most common way is by joining sleep studies. You don’t need specific skills or educational background to qualify for these tests and studies. However, in clinical tests, you may need to be of a certain age, gender, or weight or have specific sleep-related conditions.

What happens during a sleep study?

Table of Contents

So, you’ve signed up for a sleep study and now wonder what to expect the entire time. 

A sleep study consists of a couple of phases or steps. 

First, you must undergo screening to ensure you are fit for the study. Different studies have different requirements, so you may or may not qualify based on several factors such as gender, weight, lifestyle, health conditions, etc. 

Once given the go-signal, the next step is to undergo tests and assessments. The researcher will take your medical history and perform physical and psychological exams. 

You might also undergo an overnight sleep study (or polysomnography), which allows researchers to determine your sleep patterns. 

Afterward, the researchers administer the treatment or intervention, which may be a form of medicine, lifestyle change, therapy, or device.

8 Awesome Ways to Get Paid to Sleep

1.    Paid Sleep Studies To Join

If you would like to become a participant in a paid sleep study, you can look for paid sleep studies near you or refer to these legit sleep studies conducted by health institutions: 

Stanford Medicine  – the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford is currently recruiting participants for paid sleep studies. 

Harvard Medical School —Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine listed its sleep studies on  Rally . Examples of sleep studies being conducted are obstructed sleep apnea, the effects of the menstrual cycle on sleep, and sleep-wake disorders. Check out Rally for the full list of paid sleep studies. 

Project Sleep  – is a nonprofit organization that aims to raise awareness of sleep and sleep disorders. It publishes paid sleep studies from various institutions, allowing participants to easily find studies that fit them. 

Henry Ford Health  – the CDC and NIH support this institution in conducting sleep research studies. Here, you can find various sleep studies, criteria for qualified applicants, methodology, and duration of the studies. Qualified applicants will receive compensation. 

Jobs that pay you to sleep

Besides being a sleep study participant, there are other jobs that pay you to sleep. These include:

2.    Mattress or Bed Tester

If you’re not getting enough sleep, consider becoming a professional bed tester and get paid to nap. I know that isn’t as exciting as other jobs, but it’s such a chill job that’s really worth getting into. Did you know that bed testers can make around  $58,000  annually? Not bad, right?

As a professional bed or mattress tester, you are expected to provide a subjective evaluation of how the product feels and affects sleep quality. You have to lie down and doze off to provide an honest review of the product. You may test other products besides mattresses, like bedding, pillows, blankets, etc. 

I love that bed-testing jobs don’t require a college degree, making applying easier for many people. It’s worth getting a certification or gaining more experience as a tester, but working as a mattress or bed tester should be one of the best jobs that pay you to sleep. 

 Test sleep-related devices and wearables

You can also become a product tester for sleep-related devices and wearables, as well as mattresses, beds, and pillows. 

Sleep Junkie  is a company that performs sleep-related reviews and studies. In one of its  studies , Sleep Junkie is seeking “fussy sleepers” who are willing to test sleeping aids and devices to help them curate a sleeping guide for consumers. This job is open to US residents at least 21 years old with a smartphone device compatible with sleep-tracking apps. 

This job can be done at home and pays $2000 for two months. You’re expected to provide a review for each sleep-related item, device, or app you use for a week, so it’s essential that you also have excellent communication skills (apart from being a confessed insomniac). 

Note: This study is closed, but you can find more sleep studies on Sleep Junkie’s website. 

3.    Overnight Caregiver

Another excellent way to “sleep on the job” is to take on the role of an overnight caregiver. Caregivers typically care for elderly individuals and those with disabilities and medical conditions. You’ll often have to work inside the patient’s house, allowing you to sleep while your patient sleeps. 

Overnight caregivers perform several tasks, such as assisting the patient in getting out of bed, dressing, and feeding, as well as essential things like taking medication at prescribed hours and being alert when emergencies arise. 

It helps if you’ve taken a caregiving course or have a medical background. You can look for job opportunities within your area using sites like  Care.com , local home care agencies, and senior living facilities. 

4.    Babysitter

If you’re looking for an easy side hustle where you can squeeze in naps while being paid, babysitting is one way to do it. 

As a babysitter, you are expected to perform child-related tasks such as feeding, bathing, and tucking them in. You may also provide extra services for a few more bucks, such as light housekeeping and helping kids with homework. 

You can rest while waiting for the kids’ parents to come home or if you’re babysitting overnight. 

Some of the best sites to find babysitting jobs include  Care.com ,  Bambino Sitters , and  UrbanSitter . 

5.  House sitter

When it comes to the easiest, low-stress side hustles , I recommend house sitting. It’s also one of the jobs that pays you to sleep. 

Homeowners typically hire house sitters to take care of their homes while they are away. They hire house sitters usually for security reasons. For example, robbers are less likely to attempt to break in if they think someone’s in the house. 

Depending on your arrangement with your client, a few other tasks may be involved. For instance, you may also sit their pets and ensure they get to eat, walk, and are happy while their owners are away. You may also need to fetch the mail, do light cleaning, and do maintenance work. The goal is to ensure the house is in order when the owners return. 

If this job is for you, check our   housesitters.com ,  MindMyHouse , and  TrustedHouseSitters  for opportunities. 

6.    Hotel mystery shopper

Becoming a hotel mystery shopper is one of the most fun ways to get paid to sleep. With this opportunity, you can hop from one hotel to the next and get paid to enjoy their services and amenities. 

But how does this exactly work? 

Hotel mystery shoppers are hired directly by hotels and market research companies. They’ll go through the entire experience of booking a hotel, checking in, and staying there like any guest. 

But here’s the catch: while you’re staying at a hotel, you’ll have a keen eye for many things, such as the cleanliness of the hotel, friendliness of the staff, and customer service, among other things. You’ll report these observations to the market research company or hotel headquarters and then get paid. They use your feedback to improve their products and services and offer a better experience to guests.

If this sounds like a dream job for you, you can check out these hotel mystery shopper jobs for openings:

Coyle Hospitality : As a hospitality evaluator, you’ll observe and assess hotels, resorts, and spas operating in over 70 cities in the US. 

BestMark  –  is a mystery shopping website where you can sign up as a secret shopper. BestMark also provides luxury hotel mystery shopper jobs and opportunities in various industries. 

Reality Based Group  – this is also a reputable company that provides secret shopping services for various industries, including the hospitality industry. You can apply as a secret shopper on their website. 

ShoppersConfidential  – this company hires secret shoppers from the US and Canada to perform mystery shopping tasks. As for hotel mystery shopping, ShoppersConfidential expects that you can objectively evaluate the hotel, its products, and services and submit a report detailing your impressions and observations. Click  here  to learn more. 

7.    Blogger

If you enjoy traveling and getting new experiences in different places, you can make money through blogging. I swear by blogging as an awesome income stream, and it can work for you, too, if you put in the time, effort, and dedication. 

As a travel blogger, you’ll have the opportunity to explore places, which sometimes comes with perks like staying at a hotel for free. For instance, a hotel chain may contact you for a collaboration where you can experience their hotel (and explore nearby areas) and write about it on your blog. Besides such partnerships and collaborations, your blog can produce income streams such as ads and affiliate links. 

Another way to earn money from your blog is to write about sleep. You can write about sleep products, treatments, and conditions. A company may sponsor you to write about their products or treatments, and you’ll have to use them yourself to write an honest and holistic blog—which means you actually get paid to sleep!

Interested in blogging? Check out my comprehensive blogging guide to help you start a blog and make money from it. I am earning six figures from this small blog here. If I can do it, so can you!

8.    Sleep consultant/coach

If you’re passionate about sleep and helping others find their healthy sleep routines and habits, consider becoming a professional sleep coach or consultant. The main goal of this job is to help individuals improve their sleep quality by assessing their sleep patterns, lifestyle, sleep environment, and possible underlying conditions that cause sleep disorders. 

You will work with people with sleep disorders and help them achieve their goals, whether to extend their sleeping period, follow a consistent sleeping schedule, or improve sleep quality. Since sleep is essential to our lives, people with sleep problems turn to sleep coaches to improve their sleeping habits and overall quality of life. 

Is this the perfect career for you? It does not require a specific college degree, but a background in sleep science or psychology will help. You can obtain training and/or certification to establish your credentials as a sleep consultant and attend and complete sleep coaching training programs. 

Oh, did you know that sleep consultants make good money? An email consultation earns you $300-$400, while home visits fetch between $2,000 and $3,000. 

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Key Takeaways 

Whether you suffer from sleep disorders or just love to sleep, there are plenty of ways to get paid to sleep. Many paid sleep studies look for participants who have been diagnosed with sleep disorders, allowing researchers to develop medications, treatments, and lifestyle changes that can help improve sleep quality. 

Meanwhile, there are fun ways to get paid to sleep, such as working as a hotel mystery shopper, testing sleep products, blogging, or creating content about sleep. 

One way or the other, one of these sleep-related side hustles might be a fit for you!

Looking for more ways to make money?

If you are looking for better ways to make money from home , I highly recommend checking out the following posts!

More Extra Income

for more money and frugal living tips!

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20 Best Ways To Get Paid To Sleep (Up to $1500 Per Nap)

By: Author Siva Mahesh

Posted on Last updated: March 14, 2024

Earning money is impossible without serious effort and hard work, isn’t it? But what if I tell you that it is now possible to get paid to sleep?

Yes, it may sound like a fantasy, but it is possible to make up to $40k/year just by sleeping.

While some companies pay to sleep on their mattresses and beds, many state-funded and privately-funded research organizations also pay equally well to take part in their studies and trials.

But like most other professions, earning money by sleeping has its pros and cons.

Our editorial team has carefully tested all the available options to find the high-paying ones. But before we reveal all those, let’s figure out the initial steps to take to enter this industry!

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How To Start Making Money Sleeping?

Although it sounds unbelievable, sleeping and making money are not just possible together, but it is also among the high-paying passive income ideas you can adopt this year.

But, to take part in those sleep studies, you need to fulfill three basic requirements; particular age profile, specific demographic, and geolocations .

However, several studies have their own criteria that can even consider height and weight to select eligible participants.

But, in general terms, you can take part in almost any sleep study if you are a healthy adult aged between 18 to 35 years .

You shouldn’t also have any pre-screened disease. So, you can easily get paid to sleep studies or to take part in any other clinical trials as well if you are free from any of the adverse health conditions.

10 Best Ways To Get Paid To Sleep

Although there are several ways to earn money just by sleeping, not every option is legit and equally rewarding.

So, our team of experts has handpicked only the legit options where you can really get paid to nap and make up to $40k/year on average.

1. Bed And Mattress Tester

Testing new beds and mattresses to decide their qualities is the best option if you want to get paid to sleep.

It is also one of the best ways to make money without a job , as you need to just sleep in cozy beds and fluffy mattresses to make money.

According to a recent financial report, a bed-testing expert now earns around $40k/year on average. And for part-time testers, this can go as high as $80/hour , excluding incentives.

Sonno is probably the most sort-after company in the USA that now offers this opportunity. And if you are from the UK, you can try Olivia’s and similar companies.

2. Overnight Caregiver

If you are looking for jobs where you get paid to sleep, you can try working as an overnight caregiver, especially to babies, toddlers, and senior members.

Although several high-paying babysitting jobs are available, caregiving can fetch more money than usual babysitting.

As per earning potential is concerned, you can expect to make around $15/hour . However, people are also earning as much as $18/hour while having sufficient experience in caregiving.

Care.com is probably the most notable platform in this category that offers several of these caregiving jobs.

All these duties will entail you sleeping at night after taking care of the elderly and toddlers.

3. Mystery Shopping In Hotels

Mystery shopping is one of the best money-making hobbies that pay well this year.

And now, you can even do mystery shopping in hotels to test their hospitality and competitiveness. New-age hoteliers are looking for mystery shoppers to ensure their quality.

So, you can now even get paid to sleep in hotels. And trust me or not, you can easily fetch around $20 to $22/hour on average .

Besides, you’ll also get five-star hospitality and comfort along with that money.

You mainly need to just stay at a hotel and experience their service. And then, you should write detailed feedback about their services and comfort , which the management team will use.

4. Line Sitting For Others

Have you ever tried buying an iPhone the day it gets launched? Or did you even try to go inside Walmart during their flash sales?

If you have done these, you must have already known you need to be in a lengthy line.

But now, you can be a professional line sitter if you want to know how to get paid to sleep.

And in the USA, you can expect to make around $25 to $35/hour on average to keep lines for others.

You can easily sleep while keeping your ques as a line setter. Same Ole Line Dudes is probably the most reputed platform in this category that now offers this opportunity in the USA.

5. Pet Sitting Overnight

Not only just toddlers or seniors, but our beloved pets also need care and comfort whenever they need it.

So, you can also start pet sitting if you have a love for four-legged and also want your time to sleep at night. And there are several get-paid-to-sleep apps available to get these jobs.

Besides high-paying animal rescue jobs , pet sitting is also an excellent option for animal lovers to make money.

And according to recent estimates, you can easily make around $25/hour doing just that .

You can start your journey as a pet sitter with Rover . Besides dog walking, this brilliant platform also offers pet sitting opportunities in your locality.

6. Sleeping Executive

Yes, if you want to get paid-to-sleep jobs, becoming a sleeping executive can be your ideal option.

Asleep executive mainly sleeps in a closed room to check the quality of the curtains and blinds to give customer-centric feedback at the development stage.

According to the current financial estimate, the asleep executive can easily make around $35k to $40k/year on average.

And people taking this as a part-time opportunity can fetch as much as $140/day .

But yes, you shouldn’t have a light sleep pattern or other sleep issues while doing this job because you may need to sleep in various light conditions and noise levels.

7. Take Part In Clinical Trials

When I first searched for options to get paid to sleep near me, I discovered this fantastic opportunity to make money while participating in clinical trials.

There are several research labs and universities that frequently hire test subjects to take part in their trials.

You can expect to make up to $3k/trial , although the amount varies on various factors.

You may not believe it, but the University of Colorado Boulder recently paid $2.4k/for participants who appeared for their sleep trials.

But yes, you can’t do these jobs if you have family obligations or any pre-screened sleep disorders . Besides, specific trials may have particular criteria to fulfill.

8. Sleep Exhibitionist

Exhibitionism has been in trend since Salvador Dali took this on a giant scale during his time in New York.

And to date, it is one of the best methods to try if you want to get paid to sleep. It is also one of the most high-paying part-time weekend jobs you can try this year.

New Yorker and modern-age artist, Chu Yun , has hired 100 ladies from 18 to 40 years of age to take part in a giant art installation.

They all took sleeping pills and slept amidst a crowded gallery as a part of this mega art project.

You can also grab these opportunities, although you need to have an eccentric personality to be an exhibitionist .

9. Environment sleep tester

Although it is a very niche job, you can really make money just by becoming an environment sleep tester.

Sleep Standard first created this job role to determine how ambient noises, lights, and other parameters affect the sleeping quality of an average person.

As an environment sleep tester, you need to sleep at different setups and different hotels each night. Although most of these will be star categories, you may need to follow some strict criteria.

According to the current financial estimates, you can make as much as $2k/night while working as an environment sleep tester with Sleep Standard or similar companies.

10. Sleep Intern

It is pretty challenging to get paid to sleep as a sleep executive, as you need enough experience to crack that role.

But, becoming a sleep intern is relatively easy, although it makes less money than full-time sleep executives.

The primary duty will be the same as you need to sleep at various setups to determine the quality of different aspects of a room.

And in return, you can expect to make around $50 to $100/night with star-category accommodations .

Several mattresses, blinds, and curtain companies frequently hire sleep interns to test their new products before they actually hit the market.

10 Best Companies To Get Paid To Sleep

As we have already talked about the best positions and job roles in this sleeping industry, companies that are now offering this opportunity also deserve their mention.

So, we have handpicked the top ten companies that currently provide legit opportunities to get paid to sleep this year.

1. Sleep Junkies

If you are looking for a legit company where you can easily get paid to sleep, there is no better option than Sleep Junkies .

Joining this company as a sleeping expert is simple, as they frequently have global openings.

You mainly need to test the quality and performance of three mattresses over the course of two months while working for this company. And in return, you can expect to make around $3k/assignment .

Besides, you can also keep one of those mattresses that can cost as much as $1.5k , even after the trial gets over. However, you may also need to test blankets and pillows besides mattresses.

2. Sleep Standards

Do you know that you can make up to $2k/night while sleeping in five-star accommodation in a posh location?

Unbelievable it may sound, it is now very much possible as a team member of the Sleep Standards .

This company mainly tests how ambient changes can affect sleeping quality.

So, you need to sleep in different setups each day and then write a detailed and in-depth review of your sleeping quality.

But yes, this platform is only open to permanent citizens of the USA. You can simply apply for these positions with a short 60-second introduction video and by linking your social media accounts .

Wakefit is not just a company that produces excellent mattresses, but it now also assures a genuine platform to get paid to sleep.

This company mainly hires sleep experts to test their upcoming products before they actually hit the consumer market.

So, you need to sleep at least nine hours each day on their mattresses for at least 100 nights . And then, you need to submit a complete review of that product to help them improve on their cons.

In return, you can expect to make around $1.4k/assignment . Besides, you can also keep the mattresses to yourself once the trial gets over.

4. Eachnight

This fantastic company called Eachnight offers a complete guide and solution for bedding, mattresses, curtains, blinds, pillows, and other sleeping accessories.

And this company frequently has openings for sleep testers to participate in their experimental trials.

The idea is simple; you’ll get the product from this company that you need to test by sleeping on them or by using them while sleeping.

And then, you need to figure out all the pros and cons of that product to help them improve further.

In return, this company will pay you as much as $40/hour and up to $1500 per nap sometimes. However, many part-time sleep testers also reported earning more than $1.5k/month .

Although it is based in the USA, Aetna provides health insurance globally with massive coverage.

And now, you can even get paid to sleep just by becoming a part of their sleeping experts. Yes, this company now has a dedicated sleep program.

Since 2014, this company has been offering in-work nap time to all their employees to improve their overall performance.

So, you don’t need to yawn in your office when you are exhausted, as you can simply sleep at the workplace.

Aetna also pays a $25/night allowance to each employee to have a good night’s sleep at their houses . But yes, you can claim up to 20 nights of remuneration with that scheme.

6. Crafted Beds

Who doesn’t love to Netflix and chill while lying on a cozy mattress? Yes, we all love it. But what if I tell you that you can do just that to make money?

It is now very much possible as one of the leading mattress manufacturers in the UK, Crafted Beds , offers this opportunity.

You need to be at least 18 years old with legal citizenship in the UK to qualify for this job. Besides, they also prefer candidates having impeccable communication prowess.

And in return, you can expect to make around £24k (approx. $40k) a year as a mattress tester . But yes, this is a full-time job that needs time commitments.

7. Same Old Line Dudes

We have already talked about this company as they are probably the leading platforms to get legit line-sitting jobs in the USA.

And you can easily get paid to sleep just by having a place for someone in a lengthy line.

Based in New York, this fantastic company called Same Old Line Dudes has regular openings for their line sitting jobs.

And if you have the ability to sleep anywhere, it is definitely the best job profile for you.

Depending on the length and rush on the line, you can expect to make up to $25/hour . Besides, they also offer performance incentives at times.

We all know that NASA offers some of the most high-paying jobs in the entire world. But now, you can even get paid to sleep in NASA.

This premier space research organization offers freelance transcription jobs as well these days.

In 2019, they conducted a “ Bed Rest Study ” to understand sleeping patterns. And for that, they have paid $19k/participant on average just to sleep for two months .

They mainly conduct such studies to mimic the conditions an astronaut can face during his operation beyond this blue planet.

However, you may feel weightlessness and other physical troubles while working on this project of NASA.

9. ClinicalTrials.gov

ClinicalTrials is a state-funded organization that keeps all the data and records of all the publicly and privately funded trials and clinical studies all over the globe.

The National Library of Medicine in the USA provides the entire resource of this platform.

So, you can now check out their website to learn about all the sleep studies going on at this time around the globe.

You can also check if any paid trials are going on in your locality where you can take part.

Although this platform will not pay you directly, it will help you filter out the paid trials .

10. Swedish Art Project

While many corporate houses offer the opportunity to get paid to sleep, what if you get the same benefits from a state-funded project?

Yes, the Swedish government itself took part in a conceptual art project that allows people to sleep and make money.

They also advertise this art project as the easiest job in the world as participants just need to sleep.

And in return, the Swedish government has paid around KR 21.6k (Approx. $2.5k) per month on average to each participant .

The main art project was held at the Korsvägen train station in Gothenburg. While many claimed this project was a social experiment, many activists also argued it was a profound political statement.

How Much Can You Make From Sleeping?

There are two major ways to get paid to sleep; if you talk clinical trials and sleep research.

First, you’ll get a daily wage or a task-based payment during the application stage. This payment typically ranges from $25 to $100/day on average.

And secondly, you’ll get the major payment after taking part in the trial.

And in most cases, it is a bulk amount that ranges from $3k to $20k , depending on the study. But typically, week-long research can fetch you around $5k to $8k on average .

However, there are several studies, like the sleep research by NASA, where you can earn much more. This space research organization has already paid $19k/participant for their 70-day sleep study .

Can you get paid for sleeping?

Yes, you can definitely get paid to sleep, either for clinical trials or for mattress or sleeping accessories testing.

You can participate in any private or government-funded sleep trials and research to get a bulk amount of money in a single go.

And if you want recurring income, you should consider taking part in mattress or bed testing that can last for a lifetime with various companies.

How can I make money while I sleep?

There are two ways to make money. First, you can earn by participating in private or state-funded research that involves sleeping.

And secondly, you can be an associate tester of a mattress or bed manufacturing company to make money.

And in both cases, you need to just sleep at your workplace to get up to $40/hour on average.

How much does a sleeper get paid?

If you consider hourly rates, the average pay of a sleep tester now lies around $17 to $25/hour .

However, some companies provide up to $150/night for week-long projects. And if you consider state or private-funded trials, you can easily fetch up to $20k/assignment .

Which company gives money for sleeping?

Two of the most notable companies that now give money just for sleeping are definitely Sleep Junkies and Sleep Standards.

However, several other platforms like NASA and Clinical Trials pay equally well. Even the Swedish government offered money to sleep while participating in their mega artistic project.

These are all the legit ways to get paid to sleep. But honestly saying, not every opportunity is suitable for everyone.

If you have any existing disease or sleep disorder, you’ll not get a chance to take part in any clinical trials.

Besides, you also need to be a healthy individual with the right height, weight, and BMI to participate in those studies .

Although the payment is much lower, mattress companies and bed testing agencies don’t have strict criteria.

So, that’s all for today, folks! Feel free to drop your suggestions and feedback in the comment box below!

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Paid Sleep Studies: How Much Can You Make?

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Getting paid to sleep — you might say it’s a dream come true. The truth is, hospitals will pay you to sleep — or not sleep, in some cases — so they can learn more about sleep and sleep-related disorders. So how can you get paid to sleep ? And how much will you earn? Here’s what you need to know.

Find a Sleep Center Near You

Sleep centers are accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and you can find a listing of them on the AASM website . Look for the box that says, “Find a Sleep Center,” enter your address, city or ZIP code and select a search radius. You’ll get a listing of accredited sleep centers in the specified area.

To determine which sleep centers are running paid studies, you’ll need to go to the website of the individual sleep center. Those located in teaching hospitals are your best bet for paid studies.

There are many different kinds of studies, and each has different criteria. Some studies are looking for volunteers of a certain age or those who have a specific health condition. They may look for study subjects of a certain race or socioeconomic status. In short, you may need to do a little legwork to find a study you’re qualified for.

Sleep Studies for Those With Specific Conditions

Many sleep studies focus on potential treatments for specific conditions. Sleep apnea, a potentially dangerous sleep disorder characterized by interrupted breathing during sleep, affects many people and is the subject of many studies. If you have this condition, you may be eligible for studies like one at Harvard Medical School that pays up to $900 for a single one-hour screening visit and four 12-hour overnights.

Research on the impact of sleep on those who work nontraditional hours , sometimes called shift workers, is also ongoing. If you work overnight hours, or your shifts change periodically, you may have additional opportunities to participate in studies that focus on how changing sleep patterns can impact productivity and mental health.

Overnight Sleep Studies

Some studies require you to stay overnight in the hospital for just one night. One study on the effect of sleep on memory requires an overnight stay and MRI scan, and you also have to track your health and complete a survey. Compensation for this survey is up to $350 plus meals.

Multiday Sleep Studies

Some sleep studies require an inpatient hospital stay for multiple days. For example, a study currently being conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston requires a screening process of up to three weeks, followed by a seven- to eight-day inpatient study. The study is enrolling healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 30, and pays up to $2,500.

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A study on circadian rhythms that requires four screening visits, a regular sleep schedule for two to four weeks and a five-day stay in the sleep research laboratory pays up to $1,800.

Men and women ages 20-45 may qualify for a sleep deprivation study that consists of four weeks of screening and a 10-day hospital stay. Other requirements of this study may include personal health tracking, an injection or IV, and a blood draw. This study pays up to $4,000.

For those who have the time, another Brigham and Women’s study requires a 33-day inpatient hospital stay after a two-week screening period. They’re looking for healthy 20- to 40-year-olds who don’t smoke and take no medications. This study pays up to $6,250.

At-Home Sleep Studies

Not all sleep studies require you to stay overnight in a hospital (although inpatient studies tend to pay better). One study on the effect of shift work on sleep is enrolling healthcare workers who work regular eight-hour overnight shifts and are 50-65 years old. This study is conducted completely remotely, so you don’t even need to be local to the hospital to participate. Compensation for the two-week study is up to $500.

What Happens During a Sleep Study?

Every study is different, and you should receive specific information about what to expect at your study before you agree to participate. Typically, you’ll have to agree to provide blood samples, and have your vitals (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, etc.) taken. Some studies require that you are unaware of the time of day, which means you’ll be spending time in a room with no windows, TV or smartphone.

Any other conditions of your particular study should be explained in detail before you begin. If you think you may have difficulty completing any part of the study, or if you do not understand what will be required, ask. In most cases, you will only get paid if you complete the entire study, so be sure you understand exactly what that entails.

If the idea of spending a few days sleeping, with no disruptions from technology, and getting paid for it appeals to you, sleep study participation may be for you.

How Much Do They Make How Much Do Actors Make? How Much Do Flight Attendants Make? How Much Do Grubhub Drivers Make? How Much Do Hedge Fund Manager Make? How Much Do Instagram Influencers Make? How Much Do Jockeys Make? How Much Do Lyft Drivers Make? How Much Do Shipt Drivers Make? How Much Do TikTokers Make? How Much Do Uber Eats Drivers Make? How Much Economists Say Stay-at-Home Moms Should Get Paid How Much Money Do Podcasters Make? How Much Money Do YouTubers Make? .a{fill:#20964f}

Information is accurate as of May 17, 2022.

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• $50 for each blood draw or community service hours
• Reward of knowing that you are helping to make breakthroughs in mental health disorders caused by infections and immune activation

To get started, please take this survey: https://redcap.stanford.edu/surveys/?s=TRYPJMWMX37EHFM4 .  For more information, please visit this page or contact [email protected] .  For general rights for research participants, contact 1-866-680-2906.

Recruiting children with autism spectrum disorder to participate in a research study

Stanford University researchers are currently recruiting children with autism spectrum disorder to participate in a research study which examines the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs).

Eligibility: Children with autism spectrum disorder who:

• are aged between 3 and 12 years old
• exhibit restricted and repetitive behaviors
• will drink N-acetyl cysteine dissolved in water
• will undergo brain scanning with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• will undergo brain scanning with electroencephalography (EEG)

What is involved in the study: The study will take place at Stanford University over 12-to-16-week period. Our safety protocols have been updated for COVID-19 and many research activities will be completed remotely using Zoom and virtual surveys.

For more information about the study, please contact  [email protected] .

Healthy female participants needed for a research study on sarcopenia

Researchers at the Stanford Pelvic Health Center are recruiting generally healthy women between the ages of 18-85 years, who don’t have chronic gastrointestinal health conditions, to participate in a study examining the association between sarcopenia and fecal incontinence.

You will be asked to complete:

• Health surveys (~ 15 minutes) • Anorectal Manometry and Anal Ultrasound (<60 minutes) • MRI of Back (< 15 minutes)

Participants will be reimbursed.

For more information about the study or to express your interest in participating, please email:  [email protected]

What sleep can teach us about Autism

You are invited to participate in a new research study to better understand how sleep affects children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The study is led by the Stanford Autism Center of Excellence for Sleep.

What is involved?

• In-person cognitive and behavioral assessments 
• Day-time Electroencephalogram (EEG) 
• In-home, 2 night sleep monitoring session 
• Collection of saliva to measure cortisol and melatonin levels 
• Wearing a watch device that tracks sleep and daily activity 

You may be eligible if your child is...

• Between the ages of 4 and 17 years old 
• Has an ASD Diagnosis 
• Willing to complete on-site assessments, wear an activity tracking watch for 2 weeks, provide saliva samples, and participate in a day-time EEG and a 2 night sleep monitoring session

Learn more .

Prediabetic research participants wanted

If you are an adult between the ages of 18-65 who has been diagnosed with prediabetes, join Project Health!

Participants will take part in a six-week intervention designed to help prevent the progression from prediabetes to Type 2 Diabetes. This intervention involves either taking part in group lifestyle sessions or watching educational videos. 

If you’re interested, you can  take this survey  or contact us at  [email protected] . To learn more about participant’s rights, please reach out to 1-866-680-2906.

Chronic low back pain and brain imaging: opioid and non-opioid pain medications

We are looking for participants for a new research study that uses two types of brain imaging (MRI and PET) to understand how changes in brain activity and biochemistry contribute to chronic low back pain. We are also seeking to understand the differences between individuals who have chosen opioid medications and those who have not.

You may be eligible if:

• You are between 21-65 years old 
• You have chronic lower back pain 
• You are either currently taking opioids for more than 3 months or not taking any opioids for the last 3 months 
• Are not pregnant or nursing 

This study consists of remote online testing, questionnaires, one in-person visit to Palo Alto for a PET/MRI scan, and one visit for sensory testing using heat and pressure. Participant compensation is between $25 (for remote-only participants) and up to $200 for completing all visits. Contact the study coordinator at [email protected] or 650-724-4022 for more information. Learn more .

BEST trial: Chronic low-back pain research participants wanted

The BEST (Biomarkers for Evaluating Spine Treatment) trial is a clinical trial being conducted through the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program. The main goal of the BEST trial is to help patients determine which of the four chronic low back pain treatment will work best.  Learn more .

Stanford Migraine Study

Do you get migraines? Would you like to participate in a study of behavioral treatment for people with migraine? Study participants from Stanford, Bay Area & California are needed. Participants will be compensated with payment.

To register for the clinical trial, or for more information, please contact: Tel: (650) 304-6402 Email:  [email protected]

CoPsyN Sleep Lab's LUNA study

Sleep loss can negatively impact the brain networks that regulate emotion. Research suggests that insomnia contributes to depressive mood symptoms. Individuals who are between 50 and 90 years old, experiencing mood symptoms, memory impairments and trouble sleeping may be eligible for this study. Learn more .

Gait retraining for adults two years post ACL reconstruction

We are conducting a study on active feedback gait retraining and are interested in determining if knee joint loading and cartilage structure will change before and after the program. You may be eligible if you are:

(1) 18-40 years old and

(2) had a primary, unilateral ACL reconstruction about 2 years ago

To find out more about the study, please check the study webpage and contact us ( [email protected] ).

Adults with depression wanted for research study

Stanford’s Virtual Reality-Immersive Technology (VR-IT) Clinic & Laboratory is inviting people who experience symptoms of depression to participate in an immersive virtual experience and receive free evidence-based therapy. Participation may include using a Quest virtual reality headset, a mobile application, and completing questionnaires regarding your experience. Participation takes approximately 60 minutes per week for 3 weeks.

If you are interested in participating in this study, please contact  [email protected]  or call 650-736-1569 to sign up.

For general participant’s rights questions, contact 1-866-680-2906.

Long-COVID and Paxlovid treatment study at Stanford

​The goal of this Stanford research study is to find out if the drug Paxlovid (a drug that works against the COVID-19 virus) can treat Long-COVID symptoms.

Long-COVID: A wide range of symptoms that develop and persist after COVID-19 infection. Learn more .

HOPE Project: Recurrent pregnancy loss study at Stanford

We are enrolling men, women, and couples who have experienced pregnancy loss. Participants will be asked to complete an online survey and donate a blood or saliva sample for DNA analysis. This data will help us find patterns in recurrent pregnancy loss and better understand your journey. Learn more .

Never had COVID? Recently had COVID? You can help us understand long-COVID

Join a study to help us find ways to prevent and treat the long-term health effects of COVID, called long-COVID. 

Researchers will compare people who never had COVID or who just had COVID – this helps us learn things that may be related to long-COVID, such as certain symptoms or health conditions. You can join if you’ve never had COVID or if you had COVID in the last 2-4 weeks.

We need adults from all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds to join. Please see attached flyers for more information.  Email  for more information.

Pregnancy and heart health

Are you currently pregnant and interested in how pregnancy affects your heart health? This innovative study known as EPOCH is hoping to improve the identification and treatment of women at an increased risk of heart disease. 

You may be eligible if: 

• You are currently pregnant (32+ weeks of gestation)
• Between the ages of 18 and 45 years old
• Were diagnosed with gestational hypertension or preeclampsia during this pregnancy or have a normal pregnancy and are willing to participate in a comparison group. To see if you qualify, please contact us at 650-725-5720 or email at  [email protected] .

Summer Reading Intervention Study

Children ages 8 to 11 (current 3rd-5th graders) with reading difficulties are needed for a brain-imaging study at Stanford that includes 8 weeks of intensive and targeted reading instruction provided at no cost. We are interested in the effects of reading instruction on brain development. If qualified, commitment to this study is extensive and will involve multiple visits to the lab for brain scans (MRI) and behavioral tests. Participants will be compensated for each visit. Sign up at dyslexia.stanford.edu to complete a screening form and have your child be considered for this study.

Healthy Volunteers Needed!

We are looking for healthy pediatric volunteers (and healthy adults up to 24 years old) to help in our study of sudden-onset psychiatric disease.

• No current or past mental health concerns (i.e. anxiety, ADHD, depression, OCD, tics)
• Willing to complete questionnaires and at least one blood draw
• $50 for each blood draw

To get started, please take this survey:  https://redcap.stanford.edu/surveys/?s=TRYPJMWMX37EHFM4

For more information, contact:   [email protected]

For general rights for research participants, contact 1-866-680-2906

Depression treatment study

​The Stanford Medicine Depression Research Clinic is currently enrolling for a study evaluating an oral medication to treat depression or major depressive disorder. Participants must be ages 18-65 and must have been diagnosed with and currently experiencing depression or major depresssive disorder. Learn more .

ADVANCE study on blood donor eligibility

Stanford Blood Center is proud to participate in an FDA study that could potentially lead to a change in blood donor eligibility for men who have sex with men (MSM). The center welcomes participants who are 18 to 39 years old to enroll in the study at our research site in Palo Alto (3373 Hillview Avenue). Learn more .

Research study on mealtime inhaled insulin for kids and teenagers with diabetes

Looking for a change to your child’s mealtime insulin regimen? Learn more about a new study on mealtime inhaled insulin for kids and teenagers ages 4-17 with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who are not currently on insulin pumps. Visit the  study website  for more information and to see if your child is eligible. You can also give us a call at (650) 498-4976 or email the study coordinator Dom Mitchell at [email protected].

Participants needed for brain development study on girls with typical development

The Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research (CIBSR) are studying brain development in relation to behavior, cognition and mood in girls aged 6-14 with typical development. The project uses fNIRS and is designed to improve our understanding of brain and behavioral growth in girls during a critical time in their development. You will receive a $50 honorarium for participation. If interested, email Safiyyah Bachar at [email protected] or call (650)883-8393. Or fill out our interest survey here .  Learn more .

SPARK for Autism

SPARK will be the largest autism study in US history and the goal is to speed up research to better understand genetic causes and treatments for ASD. There is no cost to join SPARK and participation can be completed entirely online and from home. You will also receive a $50 Amazon gift card for your family’s participation as a small token of appreciation! You can find out more or register  here . If you have any questions, please email:  [email protected] . Learn more .

Participants wanted for Male Fertility Study

Interested in learning about your fertility? We are recruiting for a Urology study looking for East Asian (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese) males to participate in our study. Participants will receive a $20 amazon gift card for their time. If you or anyone you know who might be interested in finding out more information please reach out to Satvir Basran at  [email protected]  for more details. Learn more .

Calling pediatricians to participate in a Happy Health Bladder focus group

We are interested in learning more about how pediatricians in northern and central California understand and approach bladder problems in young children. This information may be used to develop new programs to help families of children with bladder problems. Upon completing participation, you will be compensated with a $50 Amazon gift card! Learn more .

PET-MR imaging study of COVID-19 associated neurological complications

We need volunteers! Reach out to help us battle COVID-19 by participating in the evaluation of new PET technology for simultaneous PET/MR imaging of the brain. Learn more .

Participants needed to assess fall risk and improve hearing aid use

Individuals above the age of 55 years are invited to participate in a research study conducted at Stanford. We are using advanced-technology hearing aids equipped with motion tracking sensors to assist in the assessment of balance abilities and improve speech intelligibility. To qualify for the fall risk phases, at least one of the following should apply to you: 

• Feel unsteady while walking
• Worry about falling or have fallen in the last year

Participate in the Teen Health Study

The Teen Health Study is investigating factors of healthy adolescent development and eating behaviors! We hope to use the results of our study to inform future eating disorder prevention programs. If you are a parent with a 13–15-year-old daughter, we invite you to join us! You could receive up to $255!  Learn more . 

Contact the study coordinator at  [email protected] . If interested, here’s the  interest form !

Healthy older adult volunteers wanted for study on attention, memory and aging

The Stanford Memory Lab is looking for healthy older adults to participate in a study on attention and memory.

We need participants between the ages of 65 and 80; right-handed; able to lie flat for an MRI scan and hear without aid; no history of memory loss or neurological illness; no MRI-incompatible metal implants; normal or corrected-to-normal vision; and no color blindness. Learn more .

Seeking participants for study on voice problems associated with aging

If you are 60 years old or above and having voice problems associated with aging, you may be eligible to participate in a research study on using voice and breathing exercises to improve your voice. Contact Theresa Yao at  [email protected]  or (650) 690-1031 for more information. Each participant will receive up to $100 Amazon gift cards for completion of the study.

Participate in study on long COVID at Stanford

The NIH RECOVER study on long COVID aims to enroll ~17K participants across the country to understand who recovers well from COVID and who is more likely to get long COVID and to identify ways to prevent and treat this condition. Anyone who is >18 years old & has had COVID (either recently or in the last two years) can participate in the Stanford study. If interested, email  [email protected] .  Learn more .

Participate in the Diabetes Body Acceptance Program

The Diabetes Body Acceptance Program is comparing two programs designed to improve body acceptance, reduce body image concerns, and reduce disordered eating behaviors. Female identifying individuals between the ages of 15-30 with Type 1 Diabetes who have body image concerns and/or struggle with disordered eating behaviors are invited to participate. Learn more .

Twin Nutrition study

The Nutrition Studies Research Group is recruiting adult identical twins to participate in a diet intervention study. Twin pairs will be randomized to eat vegan or omnivorous for 8 weeks. They will receive free meal delivery for the first 4 weeks. Participants will need to come to Stanford for 3 blood draws and provide stool samples from home.  Learn more .

Stanford Women's Heart Health study

Are you between the ages of 21-55? Has it been over two years since you delivered a baby at Stanford/Lucile Packard Children's Hospital? You may be eligible to participate in a research study about the connections between pregnancy and long-term heart health in women. Access the  survey  and see if you qualify. You can also contact us at (650) 725-0620 or by email at  [email protected] . Learn more .

Hair biomarkers study for child wellness and health

We’re partnering with families and young children (aged 9-72 months) for research on early childhood wellness by measuring various biomarkers in painlessly obtained hair samples. Our convenient, contact-free enrollment helps you to give informed consent, obtain hair sample(s), and complete online questionnaires. We offer junior scientist certificates and gift cards of $75 for each child and $25 for each parent. Visit our  website  and  apply here . For questions, please contact us at  [email protected] .

​Participate in Stanford study on risk factors of eating disorders

Do you have a daughter between the ages of 13-15? Then you may be eligible to participate in a teen health study. Our study is investigating risk factors of eating disorders and we hope to use the results to inform future eating disorder prevention programs.  Learn more  or take the  eligibility survey . Contact the study coordinator at  [email protected]  or (650) 549-4829. For participant’s rights questions, contact 1-866-680-2906.

You may be eligible for a study on OCD

The Rodriguez lab at Stanford is looking for individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who are not satisfied taking standard medication treatment. You may be eligible to participate in a study with an investigational medication that would be added to your current treatment. Participants are compensated. If you would like to learn more, contact us at  [email protected]  or (650) 723-4095.  Learn more .

Math Training Study for children with autism

We are currently seeking 2nd-4th grade children with high-functioning autism who are right-handed and do not have metal in their bodies/mouth. The study will include tutoring, take-home games, multiple visits & assessments, and MRI scans where children play games while we take cool pictures of their brain. Participants receive up to $375 upon study completion, pictures of your brain, and a Stanford Brain Development T-Shirt. If interested, please fill out a form  here . Learn more .

Math Learning Study for elementary school kids

The Stanford Brain Development Project is looking for right-handed, 2nd-4th graders without metal in their bodies. The study will include tutoring and take-home tablet games, multiple visits & assessments, and MRI scans where children play games while pictures of their brain are taken. Participants will receive up to $325 upon study completion, a picture of their brain, and a Stanford Brain Development T-Shirt. If interested, please fill out a form  here . Learn more .

Flex Study (Fluoxetine/Dextromethorphan in Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: an Open-Label Crossover Pilot Study)

Rodriguez/Translational Therapeutics Laboratory is actively screening individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and the related disorders body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), illness anxiety disorder (IAD) and somatic symptom disorder (SSD) for our Flex Study

Purpose: To understand whether dextromethorphan, an over-the-counter cough medicine, may bring about improvement in symptoms of OCD and other disorders characterized by recurrent intrusive thoughts when used together with fluoxetine. Learn more .

NOOC (Nitrous Oxide in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) Study.

Rodriguez/Translational Therapeutics Laboratory is actively screening individuals with OCD for our NOOC study.

Purpose: To understand whether inhaled nitrous oxide may bring about rapid improvement in OCD symptoms. See if you are eligible and learn more .

Online paid research study: Understanding suicide attempt risk factors

Have you had suicidal thoughts in the past month?

Have you ever attempted suicide? Contribute to reducing suicide by volunteering in a Stanford University research study funded by American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Learn more .

Submit a research participation opportunity Internal Communications Intake Form (smartsheet.com)

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• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 23 March 2020

The future of sleep health: a data-driven revolution in sleep science and medicine

• Ignacio Perez-Pozuelo   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1150-2754 1 , 2 ,
• Bing Zhai 3 ,
• Joao Palotti 4 , 5 ,
• Raghvendra Mall   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1779-3150 4 ,
• Michaël Aupetit   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6321-5242 4 ,
• Juan M. Garcia-Gomez 6 ,
• Shahrad Taheri 7 ,
• Yu Guan 3 &
• Luis Fernandez-Luque   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8165-9904 4  

npj Digital Medicine volume  3 , Article number:  42 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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• Biomedical engineering
• Diagnostic markers
• Predictive markers
• Preventive medicine

In recent years, there has been a significant expansion in the development and use of multi-modal sensors and technologies to monitor physical activity, sleep and circadian rhythms. These developments make accurate sleep monitoring at scale a possibility for the first time. Vast amounts of multi-sensor data are being generated with potential applications ranging from large-scale epidemiological research linking sleep patterns to disease, to wellness applications, including the sleep coaching of individuals with chronic conditions. However, in order to realise the full potential of these technologies for individuals, medicine and research, several significant challenges must be overcome. There are important outstanding questions regarding performance evaluation, as well as data storage, curation, processing, integration, modelling and interpretation. Here, we leverage expertise across neuroscience, clinical medicine, bioengineering, electrical engineering, epidemiology, computer science, mHealth and human–computer interaction to discuss the digitisation of sleep from a inter-disciplinary perspective. We introduce the state-of-the-art in sleep-monitoring technologies, and discuss the opportunities and challenges from data acquisition to the eventual application of insights in clinical and consumer settings. Further, we explore the strengths and limitations of current and emerging sensing methods with a particular focus on novel data-driven technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.

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Introduction.

Sleep is a crucial biological process, and has long been recognised as an essential determinant of human health and performance. Whilst not all of sleep’s functions are fully understood, it is known to restore energy, promote healing, interact with the immune system and impact upon both brain function and behaviour 1 , 2 . Even transient changes in sleep patterns, such as acute sleep deprivation, can impair judgement and cognitive performance, whilst long-term aberrations have been linked to disease development 3 , 4 . Global trends in sleep suggest a decrease on average sleep duration 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . Given these trends and the implications of sleep for health and well-being, better characterisation of sleep characteristics represents a public health priority 9 , 10 , 11 .

Sleep is known to be regulated by three main factors: circadian rhythms, sleep–wake homoeostasis and cognitive-behavioural influences 1 . With regards to behavioural determinants, poor sleep quality 12 (as defined by the National Sleep Foundation’s recommendations based on total sleep time, sleep latency, wake after sleep onset, number of awakenings >5 min and sleep efficiency) has been associated with stress, anxiety, smoking, sugary drink consumption, workplace pressures, financial concerns, regularity of working hours, physical activity, sleep regularity and commuting times 9 , 13 . Indeed longitudinal research has linked changes in physical activity to changes in the severity of sleep-disordered breathing and, hence, disturbed sleep 14 . Furthermore, dietary patterns have shown associations with sleep quality 15 . It is now understood that the associations between diet, physical activity and sleep are bidirectional. Thus, poor sleep, high levels of inactivity and a poor diet comprise inter-related public health priorities 16 . The mental and physical impairments associated with a single night of poor sleep can outweigh those caused by an equivalent lack of exercise or food 17 .

Sleep loss affects every major system in the human body. Chronic changes in sleep have been associated with a plethora of serious medical problems from obesity and diabetes to neuropsychiatric disorders 13 , 18 , 19 . For example, chronic insomnia is associated with both incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality 4 , 20 . A 2011 meta-analysis of prospective studies, which included 470,000 individuals, explored the association between sleep duration and cardiovascular disease 21 . Relative to those who slept between 7 and 8 h per night, those who slept less than 6 h exhibited a 48% increase in the incidence of coronary heart disease and 15% increase in the incidence of stroke, whilst those who slept greater than 8 to 9 h exhibited a 38% increase in coronary heart disease, a 65% increase in stroke and a 45% overall increase in cardiovascular disease 21 . Other large epidemiological studies have also reported associations between sleep and cardio-metabolic disease, including reports studying the effects of shift-work 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 . Short sleep duration has further been associated with incident diabetes and weight gain, as well as impaired appetite control 18 , 26 . Shortened sleep and poor sleep quality have also been identified as risk factors for cognitive decline, neurodegenerative disease, mood changes and depression, as well as other neuropsychiatric conditions 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 . There is also mounting evidence linking sleep to both immune function 31 and cancer 32 , 33 . In a seminal study published in 2002, Spiegel et al. demonstrated an association between sleep deprivation and a muted immune response to flu vaccination 34 .

Besides its ramifications for the health of individuals, sleep has macro-level economic implications. A recent study estimated the annual economic cost of poor sleep to the Australian population at $45.2 billion, comprising direct healthcare costs, the cost of associated health conditions, reduced productivity, accidents and informal care 10 . Moreover, in a 2016 report, RAND Corp quantified that the combined cost of insufficient sleep across five OECD countries (Canada, USA, UK, Germany and Japan) exceeds $600 billion a year 9 .

Following mounting evidence of the role of sleep in well-being, its relationship with disease and mortality and its economic impact, there has been increased interest in measuring sleep characteristics. This has led to an expansion in the development and use of sleep-related technology. In particular, recent developments in digital technologies designed to improve the measurement and characterisation of sleep have demonstrated particular potential. These advances facilitate the objective and unobtrusive measurement of sleep characteristics in large, free-living populations at scale, facilitating well-powered epidemiological investigations designed to explore the relationships between sleep and disease 35 . Furthermore, these developments are set to have clinical implications for the monitoring and diagnosis of sleep disorders and, ultimately, could be used for the modulation of sleep 36 .

The core contribution of this paper is to discuss the implications of digital technologies for the study, monitoring and modulation of sleep. To aid this discussion, we introduce a five-step Digital Sleep Framework, which comprises the complete process from sleep data acquisition to end-user applications of insights. Figure 1 depicts the framework. This paper is structured around the framework’s five steps: data acquisition; data storage and curation; data processing; modelling and applications. Finally, we discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities in this field followed by conclusions based on our findings.

The framework begins with the acquisition of sleep-related data. This can be done using a variety of sensors, ranging from polysomnography to bed sensors. This data is then stored and curated, a step that comprises privacy-aware storage, cleaning, filtering and anonymisation. Once that data has been appropriately treated, the processing step takes place whereby data is transformed and integrated based on the end-model. For example it may undergo different transformations like normalization or featurization. The next step entails modeling, which can consist of simple heuristic methods, statistical learning or deep learning methods, for example. Finally, the resulting model can be deployed for a variety either medical or consumer applications.

Sleep data acquisition

Sensors have been used to study sleep for decades. Traditionally, polysomnography (PSG), paired with clinical evaluation, has been the gold-standard and de-facto technique to study sleep in clinical and laboratory settings, as well as to diagnose a subset of sleep disorders 37 . However, in recent years, industry and academia have invested heavily in the development of smaller, less obstructive and more portable devices for the continuous monitoring of sleep 38 . This is motivated by a desire to enable data acquisition in larger participant groups over more extended periods and in a more natural setting by decreasing both the cost of monitoring and the burden to participants. However, challenges remain in data acquisition, including the provision of ubiquitous, less obtrusive and stigmatising long-term acquisition mechanisms. Moreover, long-term patient monitoring usually suffers from missing periods that may mislead the estimations of health markers. Here, we discuss the current state-of-the-art of sleep data acquisition in clinical and free-living settings, including an overview of traditional and novel approaches and their strengths and weaknesses.

Traditional sleep monitoring and monitoring in laboratory settings

Since the 1960s, polysomnography (PSG) has been used in clinical settings to monitor sleep through a battery of simultaneous, complementary sensors 39 . These sensors typically allow for the measurement of (1) brain activity through electroencephalogram (EEG), (2) airflow, (3) breathing effort and rate, (4) blood oxygen levels, (5) body position, (6) eye movement, (7) electrical activity of muscles and (8) heart rate. Traditionally, PSG requires participants to sleep in a laboratory setting. The results are then scored by an expert who has received training on how to interpret these signals. Ambulatory PSG is an alternative modality which often uses a reduced number of sensors and allows monitoring to occur at home, outside of the laboratory. This facilitates the monitoring of patients with disorders that may not be easy to evaluate in a laboratory setting 40 .

To-date, PSG remains the gold-standard for sleep measurement. However, the technology is limited in its use as it remains impractical for long-term home use. This precludes its use in long-term sleep monitoring or sleep in free-living settings beyond the laboratory. Furthermore, PSG is expensive, time-consuming and requires trained technicians to administer and interpret. As a result, the scalability of this technique for large-scale population-based studies is very limited, particularly when the aim is to assess typical sleep patterns in free-living, naturalistic conditions. Whilst ambulatory PSG provides a partial solution to some of the issues, it remains both expensive and burdensome.

Another conventional method used in clinical settings to evaluate sleep is Videosomnography (VSG). VSG encompasses a range of video-based methods used to record a person as they sleep. These video recordings are subsequently used score sleep behaviours. VSG has been typically paired with PSG in clinical settings to study sleep disorders. However, recent advances in telemedicine have made the use of home VSG increasingly possible. Although VSG is typically scored by experts in a time-consuming manner, advances in signal processing and AI have led to the new possibility of automatically scored VSG 41 . However, VSG presents similar scalability issues as PSG. It is costly and, at present, requires expert monitoring and scoring.

Sleep monitoring outside the laboratory

To understand the role of sleep in health and disease, sleep must be monitored in a free-living environment and in a non-obtrusive way to ensure the sleep captured is as representative of typical sleep as possible. As such, low-cost, wearable sleep detection systems are a promising tool to study sleep architectures in free-living individuals at a population level. At present, there are several options for the monitoring of sleep outside the laboratory. These comprise actigraphy, heart rate sensing and other wearable technologies. Multiple published works have demonstrated that a single modality sensor representation, such as heart rate alone, is not sufficient to accurately complete sophisticated sleep stage classification 42 . The availability and range of digital technologies for the measurement of sleep has significantly expanded in the last decade. Both consumer and medical grade devices across a variety of fields (wearable, remote sensing, mobile health, clinical grade) have become more sophisticated and affordable. Nevertheless, comparing performance across different platforms and methods remains a challenge, and few methods have been validated against gold-standard PSG or undergone systematic reliability assessment 43 .

Traditional free-living sleep sensing and measurement approaches: actigraphy and accelerometry

Actigraphy and accelerometry are non-invasive methods to monitor human activity and rest cycles. They have been used to describe physical activity levels in large-scale populations 44 , and can also be used to monitor sleep. These methods offer an affordable, scalable alternative to PSG to monitor sleep–wake cycles, and have now been recognised by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine as a valid method for the assessment of sleep 45 . Recent advances in AI and larger studies in conjunction with PSG have resulted in the refinement of the method 46 . However, three key limitations of actigraphy and accelerometry remain. These are (1) the lack of validation studies for the different consumer-grade devices, (2) lack of standardisation of approaches for human-activity recognition and (3) the lack of assessment techniques for daytime sleeping. Nowadays, wearable sensors are often used in combination with other minimally invasive sensors (such as heart rate monitors, miniaturised ECG, pulse-oximetry, blood pressure monitors, galvanic skin conduction, light sensors, gyroscopes, barometric altimeters and GPS trackers). Sleep can also be monitored through a combination of wrist actigraphy, hip sensors, smartphone sensors and under-mattress sensors 47 . Nevertheless, this increased availability of sensors also results in a greater challenges when optimising the match between the end-application and the sensor used 43 . A description of actigraphy specific sleep metrics is provided in the Supplementary Material.

Data on sleep can be also obtained from devices to treat sleep apnoea, such as Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP). For example, Aggarwal et al. 48 showed that CPAP can be used to classify and track sleep metrics, which could be used to monitor the response of CPAP therapy in sleep apnoea patients.

Emerging sleep-sensing technologies

The fundamental aim of ubiquitous computing in sleep tracking is to achieve miniaturisation of sensors and non-intrusive sensing that can pervasively monitor physiological signals related to sleep activities. Embedding different types of ambient sensors into objects that we interact daily is more attractive than using multiple redundant sensors collecting homogeneous information. Embedded devices, such as bed sensors, have been developed to track different sleep-related metrics, such as sleep time, breathing, snoring, heart rate, body and room temperature or humidity levels 49 , 50 , 51 . Whilst these sensors are interesting and potentially valuable for clinical and epidemiological research, as well as wellness and sleep education, very little is known about how their performance against gold-standard measures and more research is required to evaluate their usability. Some have emerged in recent years but remain at an early stage of development (e.g., WiFi and radio-signal approaches), whilst others have been around for longer (e.g., smartwatches). They are depicted in Fig. 2 and discussed below. Some of the potential techniques to unobtrusively measure sleep through the acquisition of physiological signals include the following:

Emerging sleep technologies range from non-contact methods like RF sensors to miniaturized, wireless or in-ear EEGs.

Bed sensors

Bed sensors may be defined as any sensor that sits on the bed and can be used for monitoring physiological processes. Body movements, breathing and even cardiac activities can be detected by the volume change of the pneumatic underneath an individual whilst they are lying in bed 52 , 53 , 54 . For instance, using micro-bend fibre optic sensors underneath the mattress allows for monitoring of breathing and body movement activities that can be then used to extrapolate some valuable sleep metrics 55 . Similarly, fibre-optic based systems have allowed not only for the analysis of different motion types but also for the introduction of retroactive feedback based on those movements 56 . Unobtrusive sleep monitoring using bed sensors (either on the mattress or the bed frame) usually entails monitoring of movement and also respiration rate and occasionally heart rate. Several companies, including Apple (Beddit), Nokia and Withings, have released new sensor accessories that can be attached to a person’s mattress or bed frame and often interact with a separate mobile application or dashboard. Nevertheless, a range of determinants can influence the performance of these methods, from postural differences to inter-subject variability in BMI and pre-existing clinical conditions 54 .

Consumer-graded wireless EEG and reduced-array EEG

EEG is an integral part of PSG and is also used in a variety of neuropsychiatric tests and applications. Conventional EEG requires expert set-up and can be burdensome, uncomfortable and is not portable. Wireless EEGs have gained traction in recent years, with several established companies, as well as start-ups, launching products. Their performance for sleep monitoring has been compared with conventional EEG that is part of PSG and has demonstrated strong results 57 , 58 . Furthermore, Koley et al. 59 showed that automatic scoring using ensemble models on a single-channel EEG could yield agreement rates of 0.87 when compared with expert scoring of the same signal. Whilst this study was conducted in a clinical environment, and hence lacks the recording conditions required for free-living validation, together these investigations show that the results of conventional EEG can be approximated by simpler devices that may be able to be scored automatically.

Similarly, several miniaturised EEG devices have shown promising results with regards to their ability to classify sleep stages 60 , 61 . In ear, EEG is a modality that has shown promise in recent years, for instance, Mikkelsen et al. 62 compared in-ear mobile EEG analysed through machine learning-based automated scoring to conventional, manual scored PSG and commercial-grade actigraphy showed promising results, although also constrained to a laboratory environment. A 2019 study showed that automatic sleep stage prediction based on a single in-ear sensor demonstrated a 74% agreement with the hypnogram generated from full PSG, which is promising but still requires further work for it to be at a clinical standard of performance ( \(\approx\) 90% agreement) 63 . These devices are particularly interesting given their potential for free-living application. They also have the advantage of conserving much of the granularity and information that a conventional PSG-based EEG would offer in non-laboratory set-ups 64 .

Although the performance of these wireless, miniaturised and in-ear EEG devices is promising, more extensive studies are required to determine the feasibility for use in population science and in a free-living environment as well as for applied sleep research studies.

Smartwatches and fitness trackers

A plethora of wearable smartwatches and activity bands have been developed to infer sleep. These devices often derive their metrics using a combination of movement signals (accelerometry, as explored in previous sections) and heart rate and heart rate variability. Henriksen et al. 65 assessed the validation or reliability of some of the most common brands on the measurement of physical activity and sleep (Fitbit, Garmin, Misfit, Apple, Polar, Samsung, Withings and Mio).

Mobile phone sensing

Mobile phones offer a wide range of sensors, such as gyroscopes, microphones and accelerometers, that can be used to monitor sleep patterns 66 . For instance, iSleep, developed by Hao et al. 67 , leverages a smartphone’s built-in microphone to detect events that happened during sleep, such as body movement, cough, and snoring by processing the acoustic signals. The software achieves accuracy of over 90% for event classification (snoring, cough, sleep) under different environmental conditions. An important limitation of the system is that the high-rate microphone sampling represents a significant source of energy (and battery) consumption.

Several other sleep applications can be found on the different app stores these days. Sleep cycle is among the most popular ones, using both accelerometry and the built-in microphone to track sleep and provide personalised alarm clocks, waking up the users at ideal timings (during light sleep) 68 .

Ultrasound sensors

Ultrasound sensors can be used to detect body movement and breathing patterns during sleep 54 , 69 , 70 . These sensors provide information regarding the frequency and type of body movement through the Doppler technique. This technique mirrors that used in conventional radar systems and allows the retrieval of parameters related to breathing rate, heart rate and body motion. The method has been shown to detect physical movements with an 86% recall rate and error rates of <10% 71 . The most pressing limitations of this method are, however, the fine-tuning required based on the type of targeted body and the sensitivity to small movements 72 .

WiFi and radio-signal approaches

In the past decade, high frequency and sub-millimetre wavelength radio technologies have demonstrated the ability to capture physiological signals without body contact. The principle is to send a low-energy radio wave towards an individual who is in bed and then to detect the signal bounced back from the body. Through signal processing, it is possible to extract biological information, such as breathing patterns, heart rate and full-body motion from these findings 71 , 73 , 74 , 75 . These biological signals can be used to determine sleep stages as shown by Zhao et al. 76 , as well as to monitor insomnia 77 . The main challenge with this approach is that the signal is subject to a lot of ‘noise’ and the information related to sleep needs to be extracted. Moreover, the measurement conditions are also strongly dependent on the individuals being monitored. In particular, the signal reflects all objects in the bedroom and is affected by the sleeping position of the individual 78 .

Some of the methods described in this section are, in general, more accurate or more usable than others. Figure 3 shows a scheme of the accuracy versus usability trade-off for the main methods described in this section.

This chart plots the accuracy of sleep-sensing methods at infering sleep-related metrics against their ease of use. For example, while polysomnography is considered the “gold-standard” technique to measure sleep, it is cumbersome and expensive.

Data collected from different modalities representing diverse physiological information may have varying predictive power and noise topology as explored in Fig. 4 . However, different modalities and the information they collect may be highly complementary and, in practice, aggregating sleep data from various sources may make models more robust and tolerant both to noise and missing data. Such complementary fusion protocols have been shown to significantly improve the classification performance of sleep stages 79 , 80 .

Some methods, such as PSG, are accurate but inappropriate for use in daily sleep monitoring, as they require professional set up and are intrusive. Other methods, such as bed sensors, are unobtrusive but more prone to noise than PSG.

Sleep data storage and curation

Regardless of its intended end-use, all the data collected using the methods and sensors previously discussed requires appropriate storage, curation and processing prior to analysis. Until the turn of the century, analogue PSG systems, limited to analogue amplifiers and paper tracings, were common practice for storing sleep information. However, with the development of digital recording systems, these types of analogue recordings have become outdated, as different challenges have emerged for handling data from new digital sleep technologies. For example, in the era of digital medicine, systems often require real-time storage and processing of data collected as part the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) 81 and Big Data Analytics 82 . IoT links all sorts of connected devices into comprehensive networks of inter-correlated computing intelligence without with need for human input. With regards to sleep, the integration of IoT technology has several challenges. These include data storage, management and exchange across different devices and sensors, alongside privacy, security and data access concerns.

Cloud computing integration with IoT is gaining traction in healthcare, and is being used for digital sleep applications. For instance, three-layered architectures composed of (1) an IoT layer sensor acquisition/data compilation; (2) a fog computing layer for event processing and (3) a cloud layer for data management and Big Data Analytics have been proposed for sleep monitoring use cases that integrate several sensors 83 . In Fig. 5 , an overview of data acquisition and the movement of information from sensors to the cloud is explored. The remainder of this section discusses the fog computing and cloud storage layer more fully.

Fog computing layer

Fog computing entails data analysis on edge devices, which enables real-time data processing, reducing costs and also improving data privacy. Fog computing is commonly deemed mini-cloud computing, as it performs all the processing locally. The fog computing layer abstracts the heterogeneity of the incoming data formats, communication technologies and protocols from the sleep-sensor IoT layer. Platforms, such as Smart IoT Gateway, have emerged as solutions to communicate with all the heterogeneous IoT sensors potentially deployed in home environments and perform local processing before transmitting the data to the cloud layer 84 . Fog computing seeks to achieve a seamless continuum of computing services connecting the cloud to the devices (IoT). This contrasts to edge computing which isolates and keeps the computing at the ‘network edges’ 85 and facilitates the aggregation of multi-modal physiological data from different devices and sensors that are then processed locally (e.g., processing data directly on an IoT Gateway). This architecture can provide near real-time decision-making to support sleep monitoring and intervention.

Following the receipt of signals from the devices, pre-processing at the fog computing layer includes three main operations: (1) the fusion of signals provided by different IoT sensors; (2) detection of periods containing missed data and (3) imputation of missed data. When sleep sensor signals contain missing data, it is usually because the user did not wear or was not in contact with the sensors. However, functional errors can also occur. For example, smartwatches may run out of battery or memory and may fail to communicate with the user’s smartphone. Missing data can be detected by various algorithms, including through simply thresholding the smoothed signal.

Besides data pre-processing, the fog computing layer also enables the inter-operability of heterogeneous sources of the data. Inter-operability is a key function of Smart IoT Gateways. It allows for communication and integration of devices, which are operated on different protocols and use different technologies. Furthermore, the Gateways facilitate the sharing of information and the driving of actuators or components that meet the required needs of the system 86 . For instance, it can be used to detect sleep apnoea events and activate motors designed to change the users’ body position or to play sounds or music during particular sleep stages 87 .

This illustration provides an overview of the process starting with device layer (which includes fast, real-time processing and data visualisation, embedded systems, gateways and micro data storage), followed by the fog layer (which includes local networks, virtualisation, data analysis and reduction) and finally cloud layer (which consists of data centres and big data storage and processing).

Cloud storage layer

Cloud computing architectures include servers, networking, software, databases and data analysis over the internet which enable fast deployment, flexibility and economies of scale. Cloud computing is often considered the centralised paradigm, while the fog computing layer previously described would be a decentralised paradigm. Nevertheless, as explained in Fig. 5 , they can effectively work together.

Sensor data integrity is paramount for successful application and analysis in digital medicine and requires appropriate data storage in order to be realised 88 . Relational databases can be limited when storing and analysing semi-structured data obtained from multi-modal sleep-sensing technologies. Hence, current trends to store and query digital sleep data are based on Not Only SQL (NoSQL) databases such as MongoDB, Cassandra, HBase or CouchDB, which allow for better representation of heterogeneous data structures and batch data. Moreover, several of these NoSQL databases provide connectors to cluster-computing frameworks, such as Apache Spark, Storm, Flink and Hadoop, enabling Big Data Analytics. These Apache products are a good fit for both batch processing and stream processing via in-memory computation and processing optimisation 89 . Resilient Distributed Dataset (RDD) allows Apache Spark to simultaneously store data on memory and write to storage media based on pre-defined criteria from the real-time data stream. Hadoop allows for batch processing and the use of MapReduce algorithms to analyse data stored in Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). HDFS can handle petabyte level data analysis, which can be used to provide in-depth statistical analysis of clinical sleep data and can also be used in large population epidemiology studies.

Data pre-processing

Before sleep data can be used for modelling, it must be pre-processed. As discussed in the preceding sections, there is a growing trend towards the integration of sleep data from various sensors. As such, there is a preponderance of unstructured multi-modal time-series data with substantial noise. For example, different equipment brands and models may be equipped with different quality of sensors, amplifiers and electrodes that result in different noise topology as a result of their unique materials and manufacturing process. Data measurement, processing and storage may also differ between sensors. For example, depending on the application and device, it might store RR interval, instead of raw ECG. Hence, data need to be cleaned and filtered, removing artefacts that differ depending on the modality employed before any feature extraction or modelling can take place.

Depending on the nature of the data, several pre-processing approaches can be applied. Smoothing and de-noising can remove unwanted spikes, trends and outliers from a signal 90 . For example, polynomial de-trending methods can remove continuous quadratic or linear trends that may be caused by impedance changes on the skin. Similarly, Hampel filtering can remove unwanted spikes from sinusoidal signals. Noise arising from other sources should also be be considered. This may include power line interference, thermal-based resistive changes or contact conductive artefacts. These noises can be filtered by applying various bandpass filters. The ultimate objective of de-noising is to ensure that the noise is subject to a specific distribution, such as a Gaussian distribution, as far as possible.

Beyond de-noising and smoothing, re-sampling and standardising can be used to improve data integrity and consistency in the pre-processing stages. Linear or higher-order interpolation can be used to fill missing or corrupted data, as well as for data scaling, through methods such as linear scale-transformation 91 . These methods can suppress the noise levels and variability in the signal and transform the data into a pre-defined range without altering its distribution. Data standardisation, such as min–max standardisation and z -score standardisation, can suppress noise levels and variability in the signal and transform the signal such that it approximates a normal distribution.

Artificial intelligence-based sleep modelling

Once sleep data has been pre-processed, data modelling can be commenced for different applications. Today, many of these modelling and application tasks are based on AI, which entails the use of algorithms and techniques that mimic human cognitive functions, reasoning and problem-solving skills and have brought a paradigm shift to digital medicine. Indeed, the influence of AI in medicine is growing rapidly and is being exploited in a variety of fields from clinical medicine to population studies 92 . In essence, the application of AI in medicine aims to aid clinical decision-making through analysing complex medical data. The insights generated can then be used in diagnosis, treatment, the prediction of clinical scenarios and to aid scientific discovery 93 . Increasingly, AI is changing research methodology and facilitating the personalisation of medicine through its advancements 92 .

With regards to sleep science, the impact of AI is multifaceted. First, it can aid clinicians in making sleep disorder diagnoses 94 . This is achieved by translating collected sensor data into pre-defined knowledge (e.g., class label), providing an inexpensive and objective alternative to manual sleep stage scoring 95 . Similarly, through its automated analysis capabilities, AI can provide wellness and lifestyle recommendations based on the interpretation of data collected from wearable devices and mobile apps 96 , 97 , enable clinicians and researchers to track changes in sleep patterns from people’s homes 98 or interact with smart-home set-ups to provide better quality sleep through the adjustment of lights and temperature in rooms 99 . Here, we discuss methods of AI-based sleep modelling.

AI applied to sleep science

Traditional AI systems were rule-based, requiring the programming of pre-conceived rule sets and demonstrating limited flexibility. By contrast, machine learning (ML) provides a more flexible alternative to data modelling, especially when applied to the raw unstructured signals. In plain terms, ML aims to train, learn and optimise a mathematical model which can transform or map the collected (complex) signals into comprehensible knowledge.

Usually, ML approaches, which include logistic regression, support vector machines and random forest, tend to use structured data as input. This makes feature engineering or feature extraction a standard procedure before model training. Feature engineering can be achieved in various forms. For example, given a sliding window (from the raw time-series data), statistical features such as mean, standard deviation, energy, entropy and so on, or time–frequency features such as wavelet/Fourier transform coefficients can be extracted and used as input for the traditional ML models. Moreover, in some applications, domain experts can also design features based on their understanding of the signal in certain fields. Compared with the raw signals, the engineered features tend to be low-dimensional with information redundancy suppressed, making the model training tasks more effective.

From a ML perspective, the most common tasks for sleep research are the classification of sleep–wake cycles and stages as well as the derivation of sleep–wake metrics. Although heuristic approaches and some traditional ML approaches have demonstrated reasonable performance in some tasks, the feature engineering process tends to be time-consuming, and may require domain knowledge in some circumstances, making the whole system design an expensive process. On the other hand, the new methodologies offer more flexibility in sleep modelling. For example, deep-learning methods can be used to perform end-to-end training, which directly maps the raw signal into the target labels. It is a pure data-driven process, and latent patterns can be automatically learned without the feature engineering process.

In Table 1 , we highlight several popular ML models that can be applied to different sensing modalities.

Conventional sleep classification methods

Following the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) guidelines, traditional sleep scoring in neurophysiology laboratories assigns 1 of 6 labels to each 30-s epoch. These are as follows: (1) awake; (2) rapid eye movement sleep (REM); (3) non-rapid eye movement (Non-REM); (4) sleep stage 1 (N1); (5) sleep stage 2 (N2) and (6) sleep stage 3 (N3). This task is performed manually by trained sleep technicians based upon data generated through PSG. Sleep stages themselves are associated with physiological changes that are useful for the diagnosis and assessment of specific sleep disorders such narcolepsy 100 . For example, respiratory monitoring in PSG facilitates the detection of sleep-disordered breathing, such as obstructive sleep apnoea. In this disorder, abnormal breathing events are less severe in N3 than N1 sleep due to the change in central control of breathing, and more severe again during REM given upper airway muscle tone reduction 101 .

Manual sleep scoring suffers from several drawbacks. It is time-consuming, subject to biases, inconsistent, expensive and must be done offline. Rosenberg et al. reported that the average inter-scorer reliability for sleep stage scoring was approximately 83% 102 . This estimate is similar to that reported in other studies 103 . By contrast, the use of AI and automated sleep stage classification algorithms represents a fast, non-subjective, inexpensive and scalable alternative to this traditional sleep-scoring approach. Aside from issues of reliability, it can take 1–2 h for an expert to score a night of clinical PSG recordings 104 , whilst the automated system can finish the same task in seconds. Thus, multiple approaches and methods have been used to distinguish sleep from wake automatically as well as to characterise specific sleep stages. In broad terms, sleep classification algorithms fall into different categories, but these categories can be closely inter-related, as shown in Fig. 6 . The different categories comprise traditional algorithms and both ML and deep-learning approaches. These are elaborated below.

We describe machine learning/statistical learning approaches and deep-learning approaches within AI.

Traditional algorithms for scoring of sleep from either PSG or actigraphy signals tend to be based on heuristic approaches 105 . These heuristic approaches are themselves based on prior knowledge of the sensing modality and sleep physiology. In actigraphy, the use of the magnitude feature as a proxy of movement for sleep/wake classification provides one example. This approach offers quick solutions with fast implementation and also tends to be biased by the programmer’s understanding and interpretation of the problem and to perform differently depending on the population, in which they are applied. For example, the algorithm developed for a nocturnal sleep pattern may not suitable for non-nocturnal sleep. Penzel et al. provided an in depth review of some of these approaches in clinical settings, offering a quantitative analysis of their performance and requirements 106 . Palotti et al. evaluated the performance of some of the most common approaches, including statistical ML, on actigraphy data 107 .

Machine learning and deep learning approaches have gained traction in recent years for the task of classifying sleep–wake cycles and sleep stages in multi-modal sensor data 108 , 109 . With the availability of raw actigraphy signals, several deep-learning techniques such as convolutional neural networks 110 and recurrent neural networks 111 have been used to exploit the temporal nature of this unstructured data to distinguish the sleep–wake cycles 107 robustly and understand the role of activity in sleep-related disorders 112 . Whilst the evaluation of most traditional and ML algorithms are performed using standard quality metrics such as accuracy, precision and recall per class, it is also important to measure clinically relevant metrics such as waking after sleep onset (WASO) and sleep efficiency 107 . By optimising clinical metrics, ML methods enable the physicians to make informed, clinically relevant decisions. Adequate performance defined by quality metrics varies depending on the task intended. For instance some sleep disorders may not require high levels of granularity for their diagnosis whereas interventions that aim to boost deep sleep ought to rely on accurate granular classifications of sleep stages.

Table 1 provides a holistic overview of the most common classification methods based on the modality used (PSG/EEG, wearable device (accelerometry/actigraphy), others (heart rate/PPG/etc)). References are provided for methods by modality in the appropriate cells. It is important to note that different methods are ought to be used based on the objective at hand. For instance, deep-learning methods often provide better performance than traditional statistical learning methods, but require large computational power and lack the interpretability that other models offer 107 . Performance and model evaluation is discussed in further detail on the Supplementary Material.

Emerging approaches for sleep classification

There are a plethora of methods available for the predictive modelling of sleep-related problems, as mentioned in previous sections. However, several outstanding questions remain regarding their application. Issues such as model sustainability, handling the heterogeneity of the data and variability in the demographics, behaviour and lifestyle of the population and generalisation to unseen data, need to be investigated more comprehensively. Below, we highlight some of the emerging technological solutions for the handling of these issues.

Model sustainability

An important consideration is that the majority of existing ML models perform a task (such as sleep–wake classification and sleep-related disorder prediction) by learning from an underlying distribution of data. However, in real-world conditions, the data generated from participants can change over time due to age, lifestyle changes, new sensing modalities, the progression of sleep/health disorders or other changes. An imperative question then is how to make the trained model sustainable in response to changing domains. Life-long learning might be the first step to address some of these challenges. This would facilitate sustainability by allowing the model to evolve over time 113 .

Personalised sleep classification

One of the major challenges that AI encounters when facing sleep classification tasks is inter-subject differences. That is, the intra-class variability (e.g., differences in length of REM sleep between participants) can be too large to be captured by the trained model, making inference process prone to errors. By contrast, by taking personal information into account, a human analyst can address this problem easily. In the case of PSG scoring, a skilled neurophysiologist may consider demographic characteristics (such as age and gender) and adjust their scores accordingly. Despite advances in AI methods for sleep classification across different sensing modalities, most of the current models do not adapt to individual characteristics. There may exist large inter-subject variation and the trained model (on the population-level data) may not be the optimised one for certain individuals.

In the future, personalisation could be a useful approach to improving the performance of the AI-based sleep modelling systems, improving the performance of algorithms 114 , 115 . It has been suggested that personalisation may be especially useful when using data from noisy modalities, such as wearable devices 116 . Model personalising has been successfully applied in other fields, such as mood recognition 117 and seizure detection 118 . However, it remains relatively untapped in sleep science. Recent works have shown that transfer learning could be used to realise personalisation. For example, based on EEG modality deep neural networks were trained on a large population, followed by a fine-tuning process at the subject-level 116 . The results suggested that substantial performance gain can be achieved 116 .

The process of personalisation can also be applied in the aforementioned distributed networking environment. Federated learning proposes a distributed way of updating a centralised model by aggregating each patient’s local updates into a central server 119 . The distributed update framework not only provides a model parameter update mechanism but also creates a personalised predictive model by feeding individual data to a global model in the localised updating process.

Generalised sleep classification

Another way of improving the performance of AI-based systems is to reduce the effect of the contextual information for better generalisation 120 . Based on adversarial training process, some of the most recent works performed subject-invariant learning, which makes the system less sensitive to personal and environmental factors 112 , 121 . Similarly, by undergoing an adversarial training procedure, temporal dependencies can be learned. These then transfer well to new subjects and different environments in sleep classification tasks 76 . Pillay et al. used EEG data in combination with a generative modelling process to obtain agreement between the labels estimated and clinician’s labels for automatic four stage sleep classification in infants 67 . In general, by learning the representative features that are less sensitive to contextual factors and thus robust in various (complex) sleep classification tasks (such as diagnosing sleep apnoea or insomnia), these approaches aim to increase the generalisation capabilities for better performance. This is an alternative to the aforementioned personalisation approaches.

Data-driven sleep applications

There is a wide and growing range of commercial, health and clinical situations for which data-driven sleep applications are being used. In hospitals, sleep medicine units have traditionally used PSG and more recently actigraphy/accelerometry, for the diagnosis and monitoring of sleep disorders 122 . One of the main challenges in sleep medicine is the increasing incidence of sleep disorders, which in turn leads to higher demand on sleep labs to provide diagnoses. Consequently, software for sleep medicine is being gradually upgraded to include automated sleep-metric calculations and seamless integration of sleep data sources, such as sleep questionnaires. These upgrades have the potential to compliment Electronic Health Records, enabling healthcare practitioners to better manage their patients sleep disorders 123 . Figure 7 gives a brief overview of key areas that will be affected by the impact of sleep technologies and newly generated sleep data.

Emerging sleep health technologies will have an impact on patient monitoring, clinical care, insurance, the pharmaceutical industry and health and wellness applications, as well as other impacts including on digital therapeutics and sports performance.

Sleep data in health and disease

As discussed, disturbed sleep has been linked to reductions in quality of life and to a higher risk of a plethora of chronic conditions 124 , 125 . Thus, it is of vital importance for digital self-management and monitoring solutions to include tools that allow accurate monitoring and assessment of sleep quality. Aside from its direct role in ill-health, poor sleep quality can worsen the symptoms of many serious and chronic conditions, including cancer and multiple sclerosis 126 , 127 , 128 . Moreover, pharmacological treatments may in turn worsen sleep disorders as side effects. For example, smoking-cessation drugs and some treatments for cancer have been shown to reduce patients’ sleep quality 126 , 129 . Due to the complexity of the relationship between sleep and health, there is a need for the design of digital intervention methods to address the unique requirements of sleep within long-term or chronic conditions. There are early examples of mHealth interventions to improve sleep quality on people with cancer and diabetes, amongst others 130 , 131 , 132 .

Amongst otherwise healthy individuals, there is also an increasing interest in mobile and wearable applications for health and wellness 97 . Ultimately, it has been proposed that such technologies could be used to direct personalised sleep health recommendations to individual users 36 . Furthermore, other consumer sleep technologies have gained traction in recent years, and although they still need appropriate clinical evaluation, they could enhance patient–clinician interaction and sleep self-management 133 . Some of the most common commercial and familiar technologies, such as Fitbit or SleepAsAndroid, offer monitoring and tracking sleep quality. In addition, new sensing technologies, such as those discussed in the sleep data acquisition section, are gaining traction and devices like Beddit have attracted investments from large technology companies 134 . These monitoring technologies are complemented by applications aimed at improving quality of sleep by supporting a more suited wake timing using approaches such as smart lighting or smart alarms that only ring when the user is in light sleep. Despite their growing popularity, at present, most of these consumer-oriented technologies lack validation and their underlying models change frequently 97 , 133 . This fast growing industry needs to be matched by multidisciplinary scientific efforts that evaluate the performance, usability and value proposition of new sleep technologies.

When exploring the impact of the digitisation of sleep on wellness and health promotion, it is also important to mention occupational health applications. Often sleep disorders are the result of lifestyle factors including, for example, prolonged screen time before bed. The resulting poor quality of sleep can feedback to that lifestyle, by reducing productivity. Consequently, corporate and health insurance wellness programmes are starting to offer incentives and personalised coaching to clients and employees, with some initiatives directly promoting sleep quality at the workplace 135 . For instance, FirstBeat provides a solution for companies that comprises personalised sleep and physical activity monitoring for employees combined with personal face-to-face coaching with the aim of increasing employee health and employment satisfaction 136 . However, these technologies can also be exploited, as in West Virginia prior to the teacher’s strike, where declining to wear a fitness tracker and meet a certain step count resulted in a $500 penalty annually for their healthcare payments.

Data visualisation and visual analytics

Data visualisation, in general terms, is the graphic representation of data. Abstract data are processed such that they can be represented using visual objects (e.g., points, lines, bars, etc.) ease of interpretation and better understanding. Visualisation relies on human’s high throughput visual perception channel, and the ability to connect data representations to human knowledge and expertise which are not encoded directly in the data 137 .

Visualising health-related data goes back to the days of paper charts and maps. Since the rise of internet and mobile application, digital displays are ubiquitous and people are now widely educated to read standard graphics representing data. Typically, activity data are presented based on the time component, which is usually visualised using line charts, where the horizontal \(x\) -axis is time. Raw signal visualisation is mainly meaningful for domain experts trained and experienced to interpret complex patterns. Specific patterns can be automatically detected or highlighted on the chart, for instance, when activity levels go above or below a threshold 138 . Projection techniques are also a popular means of reducing the dimension of high-dimensional data for better visualisation and knowledge generation 139 , 140 .

Sleep data visualisation is only meaningful if the resulting visualised data make sense to the end-user, which can be challenging for non-expert users of wearable technology. SleepExplorer is an example of visualisation research aimed at understanding how users can benefit from visualising their own personal sleep data 141 . SleepExplorer organises a flux of sleep data into sleep structure, guides sleep-tracking activities and highlights connections between sleep and other related factors such as napping, coffee and alcohol intake, as well as mood. Recent studies have analysed behavioural change resulting from techniques implemented in activity trackers and their visualisation, but few studies are focused on sleep 142 . Ravichandran et al. conducted a study of user’s experience and understanding of sleep metrics provided by sleep sensing devices. Their findings suggest that visual feedback may be helpful to users 143 .

However, several challenges remain in regards to sleep data visualisation. (1) Scalability: for large-scale historical health data, visualisation requires adapting to large time scales (from minute-level to year-level information) and displaying meaningful data summaries to the user or primary care practitioner. (2) Heterogeneity: the data collected from different devices varies greatly from, for example, GPS location or glucose levels to pictures of food or phone-screen time. This poses a challenge for the visualisation of personal data for patients and for the healthcare professional 144 , 145 . (3) Usability: sleep data visualisation should be tailored to end-users and their specific needs 146 .

Challenges and opportunities

With advances in technology, the volume of physiological and clinical data resources available to biomedical research is expanding 147 . This includes open-source data from Electronic Health Records, medical image repositories, genomic archives and massive person-generated data from wearable technologies 147 , 148 , 149 . Recently, sleep data repositories, such as Sleepdata.org, have been created to advance the field 150 . These repositories include multi-modal sleep data (from clinical-grade PSG to actigraphy and questionnaires) 150 , and are being used to create ML benchmarks 107 . These developments are crucial for the creation of generalised ML models that can be applied reliably to clinical and commercial settings to further our understanding of the role of sleep in well-being and disease.

Sleep-related technologies are not only useful for monitoring but may also be used to aid intervention. For example, the portability and pervasive use of mobile phones makes them an attractive option for the delivery of interventions and several studies have already shown promising results when using mobile phone platforms for sleep interventions. These interventions include, but are not limited to sleep advice for behavioural change 151 , 152 , optimised alarms based on sleep stage 153 and sleep tracking and feedback 96 , 154 . Furthermore, new sleep technologies may be able to complement or augment current clinical-grade diagnostic tools for sleep disorders. A 2017 review by Shin provides an in depth overview of this area of research as well as the strengths and limitations of the current efforts 155 .

Despite the potential of technologies and open resources, challenges must be overcome if their potential is to be realised. Their heterogeneity, variability (both between sources and over time) and data quality is, at present, a strong barrier to efficient data reuse. Appropriate analysis also remains a challenge. To overcome this, temporal and source variability of signal repositories must be characterised 156 , 157 and common representation spaces should be defined to exploit shared latent information among data distributions. Indeed, appropriately representing data and metadata originating from different sensors (type, make, version, etc) is critical in order to later harmonise and integrate data from disparate sources as well as for sensor data fusion. Models should adapt their inferences from different data sources and at different points in time.

In addition to data handling and analysis challenges, new sensing technologies require systematic validation 158 . These validation requirements vary based on the end-use of the technology, and must be held to higher standards if they are to be used in clinical settings 158 . On a population level, there is a wide and growing interest from the general public in wellness mobile and wearable applications, which in many cases are related to sleep and inform people’s lifestyle decisions and understanding of their health 143 . Nowadays, there are hundreds of sleep applications and a plethora of wearable devices that claim to track sleep quality 159 . However, most of those devices have little or no information regarding their reliability and validity, the testing they underwent or how the data is acquired (i.e., sampling rates, pre-processing, etc) and processed 160 , 161 . As such, individuals could become concerned or reassured about their sleep based on unreliable data. Further, concerns have been raised about the performance of these devices in populations with chronic conditions and mobility problems 162 . Whilst this has, to-date, mainly been confined to concern regarding the tracking steps and physical activity, these devices must be tested in a range of populations, in particular, those with sleep problems. Massive usage of consumer-grade sleep tools may also increase individual’s health concerns and have a ripple effect on overstretched healthcare systems 133 .

Lack of reliability and validity testing also poses several obstacles to the use of data-driven applications in sleep medicine and research. As explained in a 2016 editorial by Wilbanks and Topol 163 , the lack of transparency in these technologies limits researchers’ capabilities to study any potential bias due to the lack of information on the characteristics of the cohorts. Further, this lack of transparency makes it more difficult for researchers and clinicians to use these devices and mobile applications. Despite some initiatives, such as Apple HealthKit or C3-PRO 164 , which aim to facilitate data sharing across platforms, these data tend to be highly summarised and in a post-processed state. Summary-level data is not always appropriate for use in academic research or some AI applications, as the processing steps are often not described.

To generate maximum benefit to the end-user or other stakeholders (e.g., hospitals, researchers, public health officials, regulators, industry), there is an increasing need for a safe and effective clinical biomarker ecosystem with algorithmic transparency, inter-operable components and sensors and open interfaces that allow for high integrity measurement systems 165 . This will allow for the verification and validation of digital biomarkers for sleep health.

Finally, there are data-privacy concerns. Sleep tracking mobile applications and wearable technologies often collect information such as movement, GPS location and sound, which could have potential applications beyond the tracking of sleep. These privacy concerns may be mitigated through the deployment of data-processing functions on the user’s mobile equipment, without requiring server processing 166 . Similarly, an alternative is to empower users to decide what data they want to send to the server 166 .

Conclusions

The impact that sleep has on human health is undeniable. Recent advances in sensing technology, big data analytics and AI allow for truly ubiquitous and unobtrusive monitoring of sleep and circadian rhythms. However, challenges remain to realisation of the benefits of this monitoring for individuals, research and clinicans. Here, we introduced the Digital Sleep Framework, a framework outlining the steps required from the multi-modal acquisition of sleep-related data through to its clinical and commercial application and exploring all aspects of this chain. As the number and scope of sleep monitoring technologies continues to grow and the diversity of digital sleep solutions and applications continues to multiply, the need for careful, risk-based product validation has become increasingly important. The heterogeneity of sensors used for the monitoring of sleep–wake cycles and circadian rhythms poses a unique set of challenges for modelling and interpretability. Hence, the identification and standardisation of robust, reproducible digital sleep biomarkers is of paramount importance. Modelling based on these signals must be as free as possible from conscious and unconscious bias and the development of algorithms must be transparent and readily available for all stakeholders.

The digitisation of sleep is likely to have repercussions across industry, healthcare, academia and personal health. With regards to disorders of sleep, reliable and scalable sleep monitoring is set to provide a better understanding of sleep disorder progression and severity. This could facilitate better and earlier diagnosis and decision-making for individual patients, including in instances where individuals need to be progressed to a new treatment. Digitisation may also be used in disease prevention and to provide lifestyle recommendations. Objective ubiquitous monitoring of sleep–wake cycles, combined with multi-modal data inputs reflecting an individual’s physical activity profiles, nutrition, all-day heart rate and genetic information will allow users to receive personalised feedback for health and well-being purposes and disease prevention. New technological advancements will allow for improved sleep coaching interventions that are aimed to improve sleep hygiene or provide with better recovery for example. Furthermore, data generated from these technologies could be used to help monitor the impact of pharmaceutical and post-operative interventions. Similarly, the accrued data gathered from clinical and epidemiological studies, as well as from commercial wearable devices, represents an unparalleled opportunity to deepen our understanding of the role of sleep in well-being and disease.

From the perspective of pharmaceutical companies, there are several benefits to the digitisation of sleep. Wearables offer the potential to deploy sleep monitoring at scale, in large populations that are required for late-phase clinical trials and can be used to provide better and earlier evidence of treatment efficacy in sleep disorders, thus facilitating the progression of promising candidates through trial phases. Further, there are implications for patient centricity. Across diseases, sleep is meaningful to patients and their health. It is therefore important to objectively assess sleep metrics such as sleep quality, WASO or time spent sleeping through quantitative measures, instead of relying on questionnaires. A summary of these metrics is provided in the Supplementary Fig. 1 . Low-burden monitoring will facilitate sleep collection in trials and potentially help to increase trial participation and reduce attrition. Moreover, many metrics of sleep are strongly tied to the quality of life, thus, industry may welcome the use of these sensing technologies for post-market surveillance. The added knowledge of a potential positive impact of medicine on patients’ sleep quality may enable better reimbursement rates.

Ultimately, the digitisation of sleep could facilitate a truly personalised sleep monitoring experience, empowering people to improve their sleep 92 . However, the reproducibility and robustness of novel sleep monitoring and data analysis methods must be addressed prior to their use on large, longitudinal and multi-modal collaborative studies. The impact that these technologies can have on the management and understanding of sleep, as well as the treatment and prevention of sleep disorders, is set to be paradigm-changing. Industry, academic, public policy and clinical stakeholders should collaboratively enable this process of validation to take place, moving a step closer to truly personalised digital health.

In sum, digitisation of sleep and ubiquitous sleep monitoring will have important implications on the characterisation of sleep, diagnostics and therapeutics. Large-scale collection of objective, longitudinal sleep data through unobtrusive sleep sensing devices will facilitate epidemiological studies exploring the impact of sleep on health and disease. Furthermore, these applications will likely expand into sleep health, becoming increasingly accessible to individuals with the potential to empower and enable individuals to understand, manage and change their sleeping habits 36 .

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Acknowledgements

The publication of this open access article was funded by the Qatar National Library. We would like to thank Valentin Hamy and Luis Garcia-Gancedo from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for their insightful comments regarding the impact of the digitisation of sleep in industry. We would also like to thank Emma Clifton for her insightful comments on the implications of new sleep-sensing technology in the field of epidemiology.

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Joao Palotti, Raghvendra Mall, Michaël Aupetit & Luis Fernandez-Luque

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I.P. developed the concept for the article, gathered subject matter experts, synthesised literature findings and wrote the paper. B.Z., J.P., R.M., M.A., J.G. and S.T. contributed with sections related to their area of expertise and provided critical guidance and steer to the overall paper. Y.G. and L.F. aided on the conception and scope of the paper and reviewed and revised the final draft. All authors contributed and reviewed the final version of the paper.

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Perez-Pozuelo, I., Zhai, B., Palotti, J. et al. The future of sleep health: a data-driven revolution in sleep science and medicine. npj Digit. Med. 3 , 42 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-020-0244-4

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The study will take place in the Clinical and Translational Research Center on the CU Anschutz Medical Campus at 1890 N. Revere Ct., Room 6030, in Aurora. Email [email protected] with questions.

Study on supportive care for cancer patients

Living with metastatic cancer? Avoiding planning for the future? Feeling down, distressed, or worried? Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and CU Boulder are offering an online study for adults with metastatic cancer who are feeling anxious, down or distressed. 

The Valued Living Study compares a five-week online skills group to usual supportive care. Participants can earn up to $150. You may be eligible if you:

• Have stage IV solid tumor cancer 
• Feel anxious, down or distressed

We welcome individuals of any race, ethnicity, age, sex, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic status or national origin.

Please reach out to learn more! Email [email protected] ; call or text 720-515-9461.

Cardiovascular research studies

The Integrative Physiology of Aging Lab  is seeking volunteers for four research studies:

Healthy aging effects of MitoQ

Researchers are looking for volunteers to study the potential healthy aging effects of MitoQ, an antioxidant that is attracted to the mitochondria of cells, supplementation on physiological function.

Requirements:

• Ages 60-plus
• Willing to undergo a three-month period taking MitoQ or placebo pills

Benefits include:

• Detailed blood panel (cholesterol, glucose, etc.)
• Monetary compensation for time

If interested: call 303-735-6410 or email [email protected] .

Heat therapy on blood pressure, vascular function

Researchers are seeking women and men, ages 40-plus, who are willing to participate in water immersion sessions approximately three times per week for 12 weeks, and have above normal blood pressure (a top number of 115 or higher; if you are unsure of your blood pressure, please still contact us for screening).

Benefits for volunteers include: cardiovascular health assessment, exercise stress test, body composition, blood chemistries and monetary compensation for time.

For more information, please email [email protected] or call 970-460-8970.

Senolytics and cardiovascular dysfunction

A biological hallmark of aging is “cellular senescence”, which is associated with cardiovascular dysfunction. Compounds called “senolytics” that decrease the number or amount of senescent cells may be effective for improving age-related cardiovascular dysfunction and possibly brain health. 

Researchers are trying to determine whether intermittent oral supplementation with a natural compound with senolytic properties called fisetin (found in strawberries, onions and cucumbers and available as dietary supplement) will improve blood vessel function, reduce artery stiffness, and improve cognitive function (a measure of brain health) in adults ages 65-plus.

Benefits for volunteers include: cardiovascular health assessment, cognitive function tests, blood tests and compensation for time. 

For more information, please email [email protected] , or call 303-735-6410. 

Health effects of new breathing exercise

These two studies will explore the potential health effects of a new type of breathing exercise (a time efficient type of exercise) on blood pressure, vascular function and cognitive function.

For ages 18-plus

• Ages 18-plus years
• Higher blood pressure (systolic BP 120–160 mmHg)
• Own an Apple or Android smartphone
• Willing to perform breathing exercises 5–10 minutes per day, six days a week, for six weeks
• Blood pressure screening

If interested, email [email protected] or call 303-492-2485.

For ages 50-plus

• Ages 50-plus years
• Higher blood pressure (systolic BP 120-160 mmHg)
• Willing to exercise up to 25 minutes per day, six days per week for a three-month period
• Physician-monitored exercise stress test
• Bone mineral density test

If interested, email [email protected] or call 303-492-2485.

Aging effects of nicotinamide riboside

Researchers are looking for volunteers to study the potential health aging effects of nicotinamide riboside supplementation on blood pressure and physiological function.

• Ages 50–79 years
• Higher than normal blood pressure
• Willing to undergo a three-month period taking nicotinamide riboside or placebo pills

If interested, call 303-492-2485 or email [email protected] .

The Intermountain Neuorimaging Consortium (INC) is a brain imaging research facility in the Institute of Cognitive Science at CU Boulder. They use MRI scans to study how the brain works and how the brain changes across the lifespan. They currently have six to seven studies that are looking for participants from a range of ages across the Denver metro area. 

Learn More & Enroll

Study on sleep disruption, bone health

CU Anschutz researchers in the Department of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes are looking for healthy men and women to study the effects of sleep disruption on bone health. 

You may qualify for this study if you:

• Are 20–40 years old 
• Habitually sleep 7–9 hours per night  
• Have not done night-shift work in the past year  
• Do not currently smoke 
• Are fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2

Involvement includes:

• Measurements of bone mineral density
• Completion of sleep questionnaires/assessments
• Sleep with a simulated night-shift schedule or normal sleep schedule
• A general physical exam
• Activity monitoring with a wrist monitor
• Blood/urine collection
• Arterial line placement
• Two inpatient stays (four nights each)

The total study duration is up to six weeks of participation. You will receive up to $1,500 and a FitBit for your time. 

If interested, email  [email protected]  for study details, or  complete the prescreening survey .

Study on chronic back pain

The Pain Lab at CU Boulder, affiliated with the  Institute of Cognitive Science , is seeking participants ages 21–70 for a research study with non-invasive wearable sensors.

You may be eligible if you have experienced back pain for the last three-plus months. Participants will be compensated up to $360.

If you're interested,  fill out the screening form , and the lab will contact you regarding your eligibility. Email [email protected] with any questions.

Spinal cord injury research

Have you had a spinal cord injury? If so, we need your help.

The Sensorimotor Recovery and Neuroplasticity Laboratory at CU Boulder and CU Anschutz is seeking persons with a spinal cord injury to participate in a research project to study how low-oxygen therapy may promote recovery of movement.

This study is looking to see how mild bouts of breathing low oxygen may improve leg strength and walking ability in persons with spinal cord injury. The purpose of this study is to gain better understanding of how this potential therapy may help people with spinal cord injury become more independent.

If the following two questions apply to you, we would like to hear from you.

• Are you 18–75 years old? 
• Did you sustain a spinal cord injury more than six months ago?

Data we collect will be used to determine if this therapy may increase voluntary movement in persons' spinal cord injury. 

The study takes up one to two hours per day, up to 10 days of experimental treatment and training, and up to two days for tests on the CU Boulder campus. Participants will be compensated $25 for each visit and in some cases for travel.

For more information, contact CU Boulder's Andrew Quesada Tan  and/or CU Anschutz's Andrew C. Smith  with the subject line "IH STUDY."

Study on OCD

The Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory  is looking for males and females with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), ages 18–35, with a typical bedtime of 1 a.m. or later to participate in a research study on campus. Compensation up to $750.  Get study details and apply , or email  [email protected] with any questions.

Study on walking performance in older adults

Researchers in the Neurophysiology of Movement Lab  are conducting a study to evaluate the influence of light electrical stimulation on walking and balance capabilities in healthy older adults.

Subject requirements:

• 65–85 years of age
• Free from neurological impairments
• No recent lower body injuries
• Ability to walk for six minutes unaided

The study consists of two visits to Main Campus on separate days (approximately 2.5 hours each). In each session, we will apply mild electrical stimulation using a TENS device and assess subjects' walking and balance capabilities.

Compensation is $60 for the two visits. If interested, please contact Mohammed Alenazy for more information: [email protected] , 720-231-9767.

Studies for the family

Maternal communication study

Language, Development, and Cognition Lab researchers invite you to participate in an online language production study conducted via Zoom at a time that is convenient for you. The study is open to mothers of 3- to 5-year-old children who are acquiring English as a first language.

You will engage in a task in which you will be shown simple animated actions on a screen (e.g., putting an object on a table) and asked to instruct a hypothetical child or adult listener to perform those actions using props. The total time for the study is 40–45 minutes or less, depending on number of breaks.

You will receive an Amazon gift card worth $20 within one to two weeks of study completion (and a gift card worth $5 if you complete part of the study). Complete the parent registry  or email  [email protected] for more information.

Mom and baby: Research on microplastics

Interested in how plastic exposure might impact maternal and child health? Participate in a paid study to help researchers better understand how microplastics might alter human health and determine what lifestyle factors might increase exposure.

As a participant, you will earn $200 for completing several questionnaires and providing biological samples. This study includes at-home biological sample collections and questionnaires as well as one visit to the Clinical Translational Research Center (CTRC) in Boulder for physical health assessments and a blood draw.

• First-time moms
• Mother/infant pairs
• Approximately one month postpartum
• Living in Denver or Boulder

Please fill out a brief survey to see if you qualify. If you have questions, contact [email protected] . This study is based in the Alderete Diabetes and Obesity Research (ADOR) Laboratory .

Child communication research

The Child Research Participant Registry connects families and researchers, so that together they can advance understanding of human communication and methods to diagnose and treat children who have communication-related challenges. They invite families of children with or without communication challenges to join the registry.

To learn more, or to sign up your child, please  visit this webpage . The research registry is affiliated with the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.

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Sleep Research

The quality of our night’s sleep impacts more than we may realize. To better explore the influence sleep has on our day-to-day, we conduct surveys, collect data, and analyze our findings. Recently, we’ve conducted studies on the dangers of drowsy driving, the influence of sleep aids on your night’s rest, and how daily activities, such as working and exercising, affect our sleep. Check out the findings of some of our most recent sleep studies below.

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How Much Does A Sleep Study Cost?

Danielle Pacheco

Staff Writer

Danielle is originally from Vancouver, BC, where she has spent many hours staring at her ceiling trying to fall asleep. Danielle studied the science of sleep with a degree in psychology at the University of British Columbia

Want to read more about all our experts in the field?

Dr. Abhinav Singh

Sleep Medicine Physician

Dr. Singh is the Medical Director of the Indiana Sleep Center. His research and clinical practice focuses on the entire myriad of sleep disorders.

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Table of Contents

Cost of a Sleep Study

Are sleep studies covered by insurance, how to get a sleep study.

• Sleep study costs vary depending on the location and type of study.
• Insurance often covers a portion of the cost for medically necessary sleep studies.
• Out-of-pocket expenses for a sleep study can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
• A home sleep test can help you determine if you meet the criteria for a sleep apnea diagnosis.

The cost of a sleep study can range from less than $500 to more than $10,000, depending on insurance coverage as well as whether it is an in-lab or at-home study. A sleep study helps doctors and sleep specialists diagnose many types of sleep disorders. People may also undergo sleep studies to establish a treatment plan or to confirm that treatment is working well. 

Sleep studies use specialized equipment to collect diagnostic measurements related to sleep health, often in a sleep lab. We discuss the factors that influence how much a sleep study costs.

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A sleep study can cost as little as $150 for an in-home sleep study or more than $10,000 for an in-lab sleep study. Sleep study costs vary from state to state and depend in part on whether a person has insurance coverage .

In-Lab Sleep Study

The average price of an in-lab sleep study is $3,000 Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source . Prices can range from $1,000 to over $10,000, depending on insurance coverage. Facility charges for hospital outpatients can also drive up the total cost of an in-lab sleep study. Fortunately, many insurance providers cover much of a sleep study’s cost.

“The benefits of diagnosing and treating sleep disorders far outweigh the costs.”

Dr. Abhinav Singh , Sleep Physician

An in-lab sleep study, also known as polysomnography, conducts a comprehensive analysis of a person’s sleep quality Trusted Source UpToDate More than 2 million healthcare providers around the world choose UpToDate to help make appropriate care decisions and drive better health outcomes. UpToDate delivers evidence-based clinical decision support that is clear, actionable, and rich with real-world insights. View Source by measuring their brain waves, breathing, heart rate, and other parameters. Afterward, sleep specialists analyze the results to reach a diagnosis. This type of sleep study costs more Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source than an at-home sleep study because it takes place while the person sleeps overnight in a lab, with technicians on hand. 

An in-lab sleep study can take place in a sleep lab attached to a hospital or in an independent qualified sleep clinic. 

People who appear to have an uncomplicated case of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be eligible for a split-night sleep study. The first part of the night is used to diagnose the severity of the sleep apnea while the second half is used to fit the person with a positive airway pressure (PAP) device, a common OSA treatment. A split-night sleep study can be more cost-effective Trusted Source National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. View Source , since it saves the person from having to come back another night for PAP titration . 

At-Home Sleep Study

At-home sleep studies can range from $150 to around $1,000 or more , which is much less than in-lab sleep studies. This type of sleep study uses less equipment and takes place at a person’s home, unattended by technicians. The price of an at-home sleep study also depends on the equipment required. 

The cost of an at-home sleep study is lower than an in-lab sleep study because it does not involve an overnight clinic stay, typically takes fewer measurements, and has no technicians in attendance. However, a sleep clinic still oversees the test and provides the equipment and instructions, while a certified sleep specialist interprets the results Trusted Source Medscape Medscape is on online destination for healthcare professionals worldwide, offering expert perspectives, drug and disease information, and professional education. View Source . 

Since an at-home sleep study takes fewer measurements than an in-lab sleep study, it is not an appropriate test for most sleep disorders . Usually, doctors only recommend at-home sleep studies for people suspected of having moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea with no other co-occurring sleep disorders. At-home sleep studies may not be appropriate for people with heart or lung conditions. 

Most at-home sleep tests do not measure brain waves, so they may not accurately reflect the amount of time a person is asleep. As a result, at-home tests may underestimate the severity of a person’s OSA Trusted Source Merck Manual First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, the Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers. View Source . Doctors may request a follow-up in-lab sleep study if the results are inconclusive, which can increase the total cost of testing.

Additional Costs

Some sleep clinics and providers may bill significant outpatient costs in addition to the cost of the sleep study itself. These can include fees for interpreting the test, as well as for treatment and follow-up appointments. These fees may or may not be covered by insurance.

For example, doctors prescribe positive airway pressure therapy to many people with obstructive sleep apnea. A second in-lab sleep study may be required to set up and properly calibrate the PAP machine so that it works effectively while the person is sleeping. 

Ongoing costs Trusted Source Medicare.gov Medicare.gov provides essential information about signing up for and using Medicare, which is health insurance for people 65 or older. View Source after the sleep study may include renting or buying a PAP machine , buying related sleep accessories such as a humidifier and PAP mask, and follow-up visits to adjust the airway pressure of the PAP machine. 

These costs may be covered by insurance , but some insurance providers require stringent adherence to guidelines Trusted Source Medicare.gov Medicare.gov provides essential information about signing up for and using Medicare, which is health insurance for people 65 or older. View Source for proper use. 

Sleep studies are usually covered by insurance if they are deemed medically necessary. 

Medicare covers 80% of the cost Trusted Source Medicare.gov Medicare.gov provides essential information about signing up for and using Medicare, which is health insurance for people 65 or older. View Source of medically necessary sleep studies and PAP titration after the deductible is met, including in a hospital or an approved sleep clinic. To qualify for coverage, a person must have a doctor’s referral for testing based on symptoms of a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, narcolepsy, or a parasomnia. 

The conditions for Medicaid coverage are similar: a person must have symptoms of a relevant sleep disorder and undergo the test in an approved facility. Medicaid and Medicare also cover at-home sleep studies for suspected obstructive sleep apnea.

Coverage from private insurance providers may vary. Before booking a sleep study, a person should confirm that the center they have chosen is covered by their insurance plan.

As with most medical treatments, a person may be responsible for paying a deductible if they have not yet reached their limit. If the plan has a very high deductible, or if a person does not have insurance, they may want to ask for quotes from several sleep clinics. 

The first step to obtaining a sleep study is to talk to your doctor about your sleep problems. To provide a better picture of your sleep patterns, it may help to keep a sleep diary before your doctor’s appointment. A sleep partner can also help by sharing observations about your behaviors during sleep. 

Your doctor may conduct tests or ask you to fill out a questionnaire about your sleep patterns and medical history. If your doctor refers you for a sleep study, you should contact your insurance provider to make sure the sleep center is covered by your plan. 

If your doctor refers you for a sleep study, you will make an appointment for the study with the sleep center or pick up the equipment needed for an at-home sleep study. The center will explain how the sleep study works and how to prepare for the sleep study .

Not all sleep disorders are diagnosed with polysomnography. People with certain sleep disorders may require different tests, such as the maintenance of wakefulness test or the multiple sleep latency test , in addition to or instead of a polysomnography sleep study.

About Our Editorial Team

Danielle Pacheco, Staff Writer

Medically Reviewed by

Dr. Abhinav Singh, Sleep Medicine Physician MD

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Learn More About Sleep Studies

At-Home Sleep Apnea Tests

What Is an At-Home Sleep Study?

How Does a Sleep Study Work?

Sleep Clinics and Centers

Sleep Doctor Home Sleep Test Review

Epworth Sleepiness Scale

Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT)

How to Talk to Your Doctor about Your Sleep

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