Sleep, specifically deep sleep, plays a central role in healthy brain function, cardio-vascular processes, mood and quality of life. Auditory stimulation during one night of sleep has previously been shown to improve deep sleep and along with memory formation in both young and older adults. Yet, it remains unclear whether long-term auditory stimulation considerably improves sleep quality over longer time periods and how it affects daytime functioning such as cognition, mood, quality of life and peripheral functions (e.g. cardio-vascular). Due to the importance of deep sleep for brain and body and the presence of many conditions that involve reduced deep sleep (e.g. ageing) assessing the beneficial impact of long-term sleep enhancement and its consequences is of central interest.This study will assess the effect of auditory stimulation over two weeks (interleaved with a two weeks washout period) in a cohort of healthy young and older adults using portable recording and stimulation devices.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
33
During NREM sleep, tones (max. 60 dB) will be played using a portable, safe, in-home device. This device records biosignals (e.g. brain activity) and precisely times the tones during NREM sleep. It was developed and produced by the ETH Zurich and approved for use in this study by Swissmedic
This is the sham-control intervention; The device will only record biosignals but will not play tones.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zurich, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland
Sleep quality
Objective information about sleep macro- and microstructure will be assessed including measures like sleep architecture, amount of slow wave activity (SWA), amount of spindles, awakenings during sleep, and sleep fragmentation. In addition, subjective sleep quality will be obtained by questionnaires every morning over the intervention period. These measures will show whether auditory stimulation enhanced overall sleep quality compared to sham.
Time frame: From baseline period to study completion, assessed up to 2 months
Daily functioning - Mood
Mood will be digitally assessed using a daily mood scale over the intervention period
Time frame: From the beginning of the first intervention period until the end of the second intervention period, assessed within a time period up to 6 weeks
Daily functioning - Quality of life
Quality of life will be assessed using a World Health Organization (WHO) quality of life assessment before and after each intervention period
Time frame: From the beginning of the first intervention period until the end of the second intervention period, assessed within a time period up to 6 weeks
Daily functioning - Vigilance
Vigilance will be assessed using a digital psychomotor vigilance task, assessed daily over the intervention period
Time frame: From the beginning of the first intervention period until the end of the second intervention period, assessed within a time period up to 6 weeks
Daily functioning - Cognition
Cognition will be assessed using a digital test battery before and after each intervention
Time frame: From the beginning of the first intervention period until the end of the second intervention period, assessed within a time period up to 6 weeks
Physiological parameters - Cardiovascular
R-R interval based assessments will be obtained using wearable monitors
Time frame: From baseline period to study completion, assessed up to 2 months
Physiological parameters - Physical activity
Physical activity levels will be obtained using wearable monitors
Time frame: Through study completion, approximately 2 months
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