# Micromanaging Human Sleep Physiology to Treat Sleep Apnea and Other Disorders

> **NIH NIH DP1** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,120,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Poor sleep impacts health in many ways, so improved sleep could yield wide-ranging public-health benefits.
Sleep-disordered breathing constitutes a huge public-health problem and current treatments fail for many
patients. Lapses in breathing can fragment sleep, disrupt oxygen levels, and cause other problems.
Contemporary treatments for sleep disorders and recommendations for sleep hygiene are valuable, but more
can be done to engender health-promoting sleep - this project will introduce new strategies for real-time
modulation of sleep physiology that have not been applied or tested in this context.
Basic memory research has shown that memory networks in the brain are active during sleep and that we
can alter this activity. Variants of this method here won't aim to improve memory, as in our past studies, but
rather to impact physiology to yield specific health benefits. Using soft sounds that avoid sleep disruption, with
state-of-the-art monitoring devices applied in the home (nasal respiration, in-ear EEG, and chest EKG), we
aim to change what people do during sleep - their mental and physical sleep habits. The moment one falls
asleep, one's sleep physiology seems automatic and largely beyond control. Yet, our twofold premise is that
(1) memories and habits naturally reactivate during sleep, and (2) we can intervene to strategically modify this
reactivation to achieve specific health-focused goals, transcending basic memory research, as follows.
We start with obstructive sleep apnea patients without structural upper-airway abnormalities. Poor neural
control of breathing during sleep likely contributes to many such cases. Patients will first undergo extensive
daytime training to elicit inhalation when a cue sound is played, such that responses become automatized.
After training, patients continue emitting the conditioned response at night as they fall asleep and, remarkably,
they continue to do so during sleep, thus reducing apnea symptoms. Lab studies testing the methodology will
pave the way for at-home studies; this therapy is designed to be easy-to-use in the home via wearable tech
and sound delivery configured to avoid arousal and target periods when respiration is insufficient (i.e., closedloop
stimulation adjusted based on real-time respiration, movement, and EEG recorded wirelessly).
Expansion to additional applications will be guided by evidence-based methodological insights and will fuel
the development of a new understanding of high-quality sleep. For example, people with or without apnea may
have affect-laden sleep that is maladaptive, as when unconscious rumination pervades sleep. We thus seek to
bias overnight thinking in positive directions to enhance sleep quality; sound cues during sleep will displace
anxious- or depressive-memory retrieval by promoting positive-memory retrieval. Given that suboptimal sleep
is associated with poorer outcomes for mental and physical health, we envision a means to optimize sleep by
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10923575
- **Project number:** 1DP1HL179370-01
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KEN A PALLER
- **Activity code:** DP1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,120,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-10 → 2029-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10923575

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10923575, Micromanaging Human Sleep Physiology to Treat Sleep Apnea and Other Disorders (1DP1HL179370-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10923575. Licensed CC0.

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