Scientists have developed a wearable ultrasound patch that could help people get more REM sleep without taking medication or undergoing surgery.
The technology, developed by researchers led by the University of Texas at Austin, uses gentle ultrasound waves to stimulate areas deep inside the brain that are involved in sleep.
At the same time, the soft patch uses electrodes to monitor brain activity.
Called NEUSLeeP, the device attaches to the skin and could eventually offer a new way to study and improve sleep at home.
REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, is the stage of sleep most closely associated with vivid dreaming.
But dreaming is only part of its role. REM sleep is important for processing emotions, coping with stress, learning and maintaining healthy brain function.
In the study, published in Nature Communications, researchers tested the patch on 28 people. The results showed that participants who received the stimulation reached REM sleep about 43 minutes earlier and spent around 16 minutes longer in REM sleep on average.
The benefits were seen in both healthy sleepers and people who had some sleep difficulties. Participants also generally found the device comfortable, and researchers reported minimal adverse effects.
The scientists found other potentially important changes as well. Among healthy participants, the stimulation improved heart rate variability, which measures changes in the time between heartbeats and can provide information about the body’s ability to respond to stress.
Brain imaging also revealed changes in circuits involved in emotional processing. Researchers believe this could be particularly interesting because poor REM sleep has been associated with mental health conditions including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gregory Fonzo, a researcher at Dell Medical School and one of the project’s leaders, explained that REM sleep plays an important role in emotional recovery and adapting to stress. Increasing REM sleep, therefore, might eventually help some people manage stress and improve their overall well-being.
Current treatments for sleep problems include medications and behavioral therapies. Although these treatments can be effective, they do not work for everyone, and some medications can cause unwanted side effects. A wearable technology that directly influences brain activity could provide another option if its benefits are confirmed.
However, NEUSLeeP remains an experimental technology. The current study involved only 28 participants, so much larger clinical trials will be needed before researchers can determine how effective and safe it is for widespread use.
The team plans to investigate whether the technology could eventually help people with chronic insomnia, depression and PTSD. Researchers also see possibilities for using it to monitor sleep at home and provide treatments tailored to individual patients.
The researchers have filed a patent application and are working with the University of Texas at Austin’s commercialization team to explore bringing the technology to market.
If future studies confirm the early results, a simple wearable patch could one day provide a drug-free way to help people improve one of the brain’s most important stages of sleep.
