NeurologyLive® Year in Review 2022: Most-Watched Sleep Disorder Expert Interviews

The NeurologyLive^® team spoke with hundreds of experts across the field of neurology, culminating in hundreds of hours of interview clips posted over the course of this year. The staff spoke with neurologists, investigators, advanced practice providers, physical therapists, advocates, patients, pharmacists, and industry experts—anyone involved in the process of delivering clinical care.

These conversations were had with individuals from all over the world, both virtually and in person. The team attended more than 10 annual meetings of medical societies, each and every time sitting down with experts on-site to learn more about the conversations driving care and the challenges being overcome.

From those in the field of sleep disorders this year, we learned much about the progress that has been made in the understanding of sleep's effect on overall health, as well as witnessed huge steps forward in therapeutic options for a variety of disorders, such as narcolepsy and insomnia. Sleep disorders and sleep science have also been hot topic issues for the wider world, with discussions about daylight saving time and circadian rhythm making their way to the chambers of US Congress.

Here, we'll highlight the most-viewed expert interviews on NeurologyLive^® this year. Click the buttons to watch more of our conversations with these experts.

1. Overcoming Difficulties in the Care Paradigm for Insomnia: Ashgan Elshinawy, DO

The pulmonologist at Penn Medicine provided commentary on the pressing issues clinicians continue to face when treating patients with insomnia. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"This drug, even though it works for so many of my patients, may not work for you, so don’t get frustrated—there are other medications we can try. It’s their impatience, their eagerness, their anxiety [which drives that frustration].”

2. Differences in Approaches to Pediatric and Adult Sleep Disorders: Jodi A. Mindell, PhD

The associate director of the Sleep Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia detailed the similarities and differences in how sleep disorders are viewed between children and adults. WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"I think the one area that is the most different in how we treat children and adults is related to insomnia. Insomnia in adults, we do a lot of stimulus control, and we typically will do a lot of sleep restriction."

3. Expanding Knowledge About Advantages of Low-Sodium Oxybates: Richard Bogan, MD, FCCP, FAASM

The associate clinical professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine discussed how JZP-258’s clinical profile has expanded since its original approval for narcolepsy, and whether it makes sense for all patients to consider. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"I take to mind the fact that the FDA said this is a clinically superior drug. It’s a safer drug, it has lower sodium, and it’s still oxybate, the same moiety. Now, we’ve got clinical experience with the drug in terms of transitioning patients from Xyrem to Xywav, the lower sodium moiety. For most people, it’s gram-for-gram and fairly easy for patients to understand."

4. Assessing the Correlations With Sleep Issues and Risk of Dementia: Ruth Benca, MD, PhD

The professor and chair of Psychiatry & Human Behavior at Wake Forest School of Medicine provided insight into the signs and risks associated with sleep disorders and Alzheimer disease. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"One of the things that still needs more data on is the impact of treating sleep problems. Just because sleep is an early sign or risk factor, we’re trying to understand how much is causally related."

5. More Awareness Needed for Sleep Health and Pediatric Epilepsy: Renee Shellhaas, MD, MS, FAES

The professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, spoke about sleep-wake patterns in epilepsy based on a special lecture from the 2022 AES Annual Meeting. WATCH TIME: 6 minutes

“Sleep is a very important issue for parents and for children with epilepsy. Yet, we have very few data to really guide our practice. We know that most often, nobody asks a parent about their child's sleep, and even when there are pretty significant sleep disorders, a lot of times kids aren't evaluated.”

6. The Cumulative Effect of Chronic Insomnia: Yuri Maricich, MD, MBA

The internal medicine physician and chief medical officer and head of development at Pear Therapeutics spoke about the long-term impacts that uncontrolled insomnia can have on patients with chronic disease. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“We have seen before the reduction in medications, but in my experience as an internal medicine physician, I’m familiar with patients, for example, with severe neurologic diseases—like Parkinson’s—or heart failure, ending up in the hospital or the ER. But it was not commonplace for me to expect patients with poor sleep to end up in the ER.”

7. The Potential and Limitations of AI Algorithms in Sleep Care: Anuja Bandyopadhyay, MD

The assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine, and the chair of the AASM’s Artificial Intelligence in Sleep Medicine Committee, spoke about the ability of AI algorithms as tools in clinical care. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

“An AI algorithm, for the most part, is as good as the dataset it gets trained on. For instance, if I am training it with data from a 4-year-old [population] who ­­­have a certain percentage of sleep and are normally healthy, after training my machine on that population if I then take that algorithm and use it on say, a 60-year-old [population] with multiple morbidities, it may not work as well.”

8. Understanding the Association Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment and Dementia Risk: Galit L. Dunietz, PhD, MPH

The assistant professor of neurology at the University of Michigan provided context on a previous study that suggested that treatment of obstructive sleep apnea may reduce the risk of subsequent dementia. WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"There are biological pathways between sleep and dementia. We need to know more about the other dimensions of sleep—the timing of sleep, the quality of sleep, variability of sleep—and how these patterns relate to dementia and cognitive decline. That’s the first thing we don’t know."

9. Overview of the Prevalence and Variety of Pediatric Sleep Disorders: Carol Rosen, MD

The professor of pediatrics at Case Western University provided insight into the typical sleep issues seen in children and adolescents, and how they impact overall quality of life. WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

"The sixth bucket, which are the rarest disorders, are what we call hypersomnias, or ‘too sleepy’ disorders. You get enough sleep, but you still can’t stay awake during the day, and it’s hard wake up in the morning. The most common disorder in that bucket is narcolepsy."

10. Increased Risk of Insomnia in Transgender Youths With Mental Health Disorders: Ronald Gavidia, MD, MS

The clinical assistant professor in the division of sleep medicine at the University of Michigan spoke about the associations of mental health with insomnia in transgender youth. WATCH TIME: 5 minutes

“The transgender population has a very high burden of mental health disorders and there's a strong association between those and the development of insomnia. We believe that as they are starting to transition that may improve their mental health, and that secondarily may decrease insomnia.”