Sleep brain-wave tracking for overnight brain changes and morning thinking
Official title: Using sleep EEG for tracking longitudinal changes in brain state and waketime cognitive function
Funded at Massachusetts General Hospital · NIH-11293020 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers are using nighttime brain-wave recordings to see how night-to-night changes and things like sleep loss, shiftwork, or caffeine affect morning thinking in adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2026 |
| Project end | April 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $266,541 |
| NIH project number | 1R21HL184268-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-11293020 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Findings would be most useful for adults who experience sleep restriction, irregular sleep schedules (for example shift workers), frequent caffeine use, or who want personalized tracking of sleep-related thinking changes.
✕Less likely to help
People unlikely to benefit include children, individuals with neurological disorders not represented in the original datasets, and those seeking immediate clinical treatment rather than monitoring tools.
What this research studies
You are told this project looks at overnight brain-wave (EEG) recordings that were gathered under tightly controlled inpatient conditions at Mass General. The team applies machine learning to those sleep signals to measure how much a person’s brain state changes night to night and how behaviors like shortened sleep, working nights, or caffeine use shift those patterns. They will compare across different ages to separate temporary bedtime effects from stable individual traits. By focusing on well-controlled data, they aim to reduce false alarms and make sleep-based brain monitoring more reliable.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to better tools that use sleep brain waves to monitor brain health and predict morning thinking problems after poor or irregular sleep.
How similar studies have gone: Previous studies using machine learning on sleep EEG have shown promise in group-level findings, but limitations remain for reliable individual-level use.
Where this research is happening
-
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Klerman, Elizabeth B. — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Klerman, Elizabeth B.
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.