Consumer sleep technologies (CSTs) are widespread applications and devices that purport to measure and even improve sleep. Sleep clinicians may frequently encounter CST in practice and, despite lack of validation against gold standard polysomnography, familiarity with these devices has become a patient expectation. This American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement details the disadvantages and potential benefits of CSTs and provides guidance when approaching patient-generated health data from CSTs in a clinical setting. Given the lack of validation and United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance, CSTs cannot be utilized for the diagnosis and/or treatment of sleep disorders at this time. However, CSTs may be utilized to enhance the patient-clinician interaction when presented in the context of an appropriate clinical evaluation. The ubiquitous nature of CSTs may further sleep research and practice. However, future validation, access to raw data and algorithms, and FDA oversight are needed.

Sleep is a complex physiologic state, the importance of which has long been recognized. Lack of sleep is detrimental to humans and animals. Over the past decade, an important link between sleep and cognitive processing has been established. Sleep plays an important role in consolidation of different types of memory and contributes to insightful, inferential thinking. While the mechanism by which memories are processed in sleep remains unknown, several experimental models have been proposed. This article explores the link between sleep and cognition by reviewing (1) the effects of sleep deprivation on cognition, (2) the influence of sleep on consolidation of declarative and non-declarative memory, and 3) some proposed models of how sleep facilitates memory consolidation in sleep.

The purpose of this study is to examine how sleep impacts memory function in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). TLE patients (n=7) and control subjects (n=9) underwent training and overnight testing on (1) a motor sequence task (MST) known to undergo sleep-dependent enhancement in healthy subjects, and (2) the selective reminding test (SRT), a verbal memory task on which TLE patients have shown impaired performance 24 hours after training. Sleep data was collected by polysomnography. Results indicate that TLE patients display greater forgetting on the SRT compared to controls over 12 hours of daytime wake, but not over a similar period including a night of sleep. Slow wave sleep is correlated with overnight performance change on the SRT. TLE patients show no deficit in sleep-dependent MST improvement. The findings provide potential insight into the pattern and pathophysiology of forgetting in TLE.

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Response to Watson et al. Will consumer sleep technologies change the way we practice sleep medicine?

Insomnia is a common disorder, with individual and societal consequences. Advances have been made in the understanding of insomnia and its treatment options. However, cognitive behavioral therapy and Food and Drug Administration-approved pharmacologic therapies have limitations, the former primarily involving access and the latter involving potential side effects. Further research is needed to optimize management strategies.