Researcher finds way to diagnose people with sleep apnea while they’re awake

A researcher at Northeastern University has found a groundbreaking new way to diagnose people with sleep apnea that could open the door for mass screenings of a sleep disorder that affects millions of people.

Sleep apnea involves consistent disruptions to breathing during sleep, often stemming from airway blockages or brain signal issues. About 30 million people in the U.S. have sleep apnea, which, if left untreated, can lead to long-lasting effects, including fatigue, memory loss and even depression.

By focusing on brain signals, Aarti Sathyanarayana, an assistant professor of public health and health and computer science at Northeastern University, published a study in the Journal of Sleep Research on a new, accurate method of detecting sleep apnea that, for the first time, can be done even when someone is awake.

“I don’t think anyone has tried to diagnose sleep apnea when awake because it sounds crazy, but we found evidence that it can be done,” Sathyanarayana says.

The current gold standard for diagnosing sleep apnea is the apnea-hypopnea index, which involves looking at how many times someone’s breathing is interrupted during sleep. But Sathyanarayana wanted to do one better.

Drawing on her experience working with epilepsy patients, she set out to use electroencephalograms, or EEGs, a kind of test that measures electrical pulses in the brain to find abnormalities.

“That’s pretty major because now we can detect that there’s something different in the brain with people who have sleep apnea compared to people who don’t,” Sathyanarayana says.

This method was not only accurate but accurate with data from pediatric patients, whose brains are generally more difficult to analyze because they are still developing.

Most notable, however, was that Sathyanarayana could pick up on these differences in brain activity while the patient was about to fall asleep but was still awake.

“It’s easiest to do this during REM sleep; it’s harder to do it during non-REM sleep,” Sathyanarayana says. “You would think it would be impossible when they’re awake, but it’s not impossible when they’re awake.”

Using an EEG is a major shift in diagnostic technique, she adds, one that could make it much easier and affordable for people to get a diagnosis. Sathyanarayana has already filed a patent on this method of sleep apnea detection with the goal of applying it to consumer-grade EEGs, which are becoming increasingly available, “so we can really do widespread screening,” she says.

“Hopefully, these are devices that people will own, like how people own smart watches for their sleep and their physical activity,” Sathyanarayana says. “The goal would even be to track how it improves over time once people are receiving treatment and make it not just ‘sleep apnea or no sleep apnea’ but how severe is your sleep apnea?”

Although using an EEG revealed a difference in brain activity between those with sleep apnea and those without it, Sathayanarayana doesn’t yet know what that difference is connected to. This is just one breakthrough in what she hopes is the beginning of a whole new way of looking at the brain and a condition that impacts the lives of millions.

“It could be fatigue. It could be something that affects memory,” Sathyanarayana says. “It could be the early signs of some of that coming about. … There are hundreds of studies that need to be done to answer the questions about memory and depression and all these different things. This is something that people should be researching. This is something we can move forward in.”

A researcher at Northeastern University has found a groundbreaking new way to diagnose people with sleep apnea that could open the door for mass screenings of a sleep disorder that affects millions of people.

Sleep apnea involves consistent disruptions to breathing during sleep, often stemming from airway blockages or brain signal issues. About 30 million people in the U.S. have sleep apnea, which, if left untreated, can lead to long-lasting effects, including fatigue, memory loss and even depression.

By focusing on brain signals, Aarti Sathyanarayana, an assistant professor of public health and health and computer science at Northeastern University, published a study in the Journal of Sleep Research on a new, accurate method of detecting sleep apnea that, for the first time, can be done even when someone is awake.

“I don’t think anyone has tried to diagnose sleep apnea when awake because it sounds crazy, but we found evidence that it can be done,” Sathyanarayana says.

The current gold standard for diagnosing sleep apnea is the apnea-hypopnea index, which involves looking at how many times someone’s breathing is interrupted during sleep. But Sathyanarayana wanted to do one better.

Drawing on her experience working with epilepsy patients, she set out to use electroencephalograms, or EEGs, a kind of test that measures electrical pulses in the brain to find abnormalities.

“That’s pretty major because now we can detect that there’s something different in the brain with people who have sleep apnea compared to people who don’t,” Sathyanarayana says.

This method was not only accurate but accurate with data from pediatric patients, whose brains are generally more difficult to analyze because they are still developing.

Most notable, however, was that Sathyanarayana could pick up on these differences in brain activity while the patient was about to fall asleep but was still awake.

“It’s easiest to do this during REM sleep; it’s harder to do it during non-REM sleep,” Sathyanarayana says. “You would think it would be impossible when they’re awake, but it’s not impossible when they’re awake.”

Using an EEG is a major shift in diagnostic technique, she adds, one that could make it much easier and affordable for people to get a diagnosis. Sathyanarayana has already filed a patent on this method of sleep apnea detection with the goal of applying it to consumer-grade EEGs, which are becoming increasingly available, “so we can really do widespread screening,” she says.

“Hopefully, these are devices that people will own, like how people own smart watches for their sleep and their physical activity,” Sathyanarayana says. “The goal would even be to track how it improves over time once people are receiving treatment and make it not just ‘sleep apnea or no sleep apnea’ but how severe is your sleep apnea?”

Although using an EEG revealed a difference in brain activity between those with sleep apnea and those without it, Sathayanarayana doesn’t yet know what that difference is connected to. This is just one breakthrough in what she hopes is the beginning of a whole new way of looking at the brain and a condition that impacts the lives of millions.

“It could be fatigue. It could be something that affects memory,” Sathyanarayana says. “It could be the early signs of some of that coming about. … There are hundreds of studies that need to be done to answer the questions about memory and depression and all these different things. This is something that people should be researching. This is something we can move forward in.”