# Sleep Physiology Dynamics: Quantification, Characterization and Genetic Dissection

> **NIH NIH R21** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2020 · $134,250

## Abstract

Project Summary.
Unhealthy sleep can manifest in multi-organ associations, affecting cardiometabolic, immune, behavioral,
cognitive and other systems. Research has pointed to the predictive and diagnostic potential of biomarkers
derived from physiological sleep signals, not just for sleep disorders but also for a broad range of other
diseases. However, although sleep is a dynamic process, that changes over the night, the typical metrics
considered as possible biomarkers fail to capture this directly.
Based on polysomnography data collected on over 13,000 participants from NHLBI National Sleep Research
Resource (NSRR), we will develop a framework for quantifying individual differences in the dynamic structure
of cardiac physiology during sleep. We will study the relationships of derived phenotypes with cardiometabolic
disease state as well as its genetic diathesis, to better characterize the causal links between sleep-related
physiology and health.
Specifically, we will apply time series clustering methods to capture individual differences in how core
physiologic parameters vary across the night, focusing on electrocardiographic signals. We will then evaluate
these derived traits, in terms of reliability, heritability, demographic and chronotype associations, and prediction
of cardiometabolic disease with a focus on hypertension and diabetes. Secondly, we will use genetic
approaches to study the causal relationships between sleep-related dynamics and cardiometabolic disease, by
developing models that use polygenic risk scores from external genome-wide association studies. In addition
to generating new methods and tools for large-scale analyses of physiologic sleep signal data, this work has
the potential to discover novel biomarkers for cardiometabolic disease, which can inform risk stratification
models and point to therapeutic targets.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9902196
- **Project number:** 5R21HL145492-02
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Shaun M Purcell
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $134,250
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9902196

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9902196, Sleep Physiology Dynamics: Quantification, Characterization and Genetic Dissection (5R21HL145492-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9902196. Licensed CC0.

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