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Nature and Science of Sleep

ISSN: 1179-1608


The following Article Collections/ Thematic Series are currently open for submissions:

Sleep and COVID-19

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Sleep and COVID-19", organized by Guest Advisor Dr. Cecilia Cheng (University of Hong Kong, China), in Nature and Science of Sleep.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the world, affecting every aspect of our lives. One of the key areas of concern that has come to light is the impact of the pandemic on sleep. Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining our physical and mental health, and any disruption to it can have significant consequences. With the outbreak of COVID-19, several factors have come into play that have had a profound impact on sleep, and this has led to an increased interest in the subject.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a range of changes in our daily lives that have contributed to sleep disruptions. For one, the pandemic has forced many people to work from home, which has led to changes in daily routines and work schedules. These changes have disrupted our circadian rhythms, the internal clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. Additionally, the pandemic has caused widespread anxiety and stress, which can lead to insomnia and other sleep disorders. Fear of contracting the virus, financial uncertainty, and social isolation have all contributed to increased levels of stress and anxiety, which can make it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. The pandemic has also led to changes in our physical activity levels and exposure to natural light. With many people confined to their homes and limited outdoor activities, there has been a decrease in physical activity and exposure to natural light. These factors can have a negative impact on sleep quality, as exposure to natural light and physical activity are both essential for regulating our circadian rhythms. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to changes in sleep patterns among healthcare workers who are on the front lines of the pandemic. Healthcare workers are often required to work long hours, which can disrupt their sleep patterns and lead to chronic sleep deprivation. This can have serious consequences on their physical and mental health, and may even compromise their ability to provide quality care to their patients.

Sleep is an essential aspect of health and well-being, and disruptions to sleep can have significant impacts on physical and mental health. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have experienced increased stress and anxiety, which can exacerbate sleep problems. Understanding the relationship between sleep quality and pandemic-related stress and anxiety is critical for developing effective interventions to support individuals' mental and physical health during and beyond the pandemic.

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered our daily lives, resulting in a profound impact on our sleep patterns. The pandemic has disrupted our circadian rhythms, increased stress and anxiety levels, reduced exposure to natural light and physical activity, and altered the sleep patterns of healthcare workers. As we continue to navigate this unprecedented situation, it is crucial that we pay close attention to the effects of these changes on our sleep and take necessary steps to maintain healthy sleep habits. As such, we organized an Article Collection with the aim of investigating the relationship between sleep quality and psychological distress, including but not limited to pandemic-related stress and anxiety. The collection also seeks to explore potential interventions that could improve sleep patterns during these challenging times.

Potential subtopics include (but are not limited to):
• The impact of COVID-19 on sleep quality and duration
• The relationship between pandemic-related stress and anxiety and sleep
• Interventions to improve sleep during the COVID-19 pandemic, including cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, mindfulness-based interventions, and sleep hygiene education
• The impact of sleep disruptions on mental and physical health during the pandemic
• The role of technology in monitoring and improving sleep during the pandemic
• The impact of sleep on immune system functioning and susceptibility to infection
• The effects of social distancing measures on sleep patterns
• The impact of COVID-19 on sleep in certain occupations, such as healthcare workers and other frontline workers
• The effectiveness of public health messaging and education campaigns in promoting healthy sleep during the pandemic.
• Long-term consequences of COVID-19 on sleep disorders.
• Advantages and challenges of telemedicine in sleep medicine.
• Telemonitoring and its role in managing sleep-related conditions.
• Remote sleep studies and their efficacy during pandemics.
• Benefits and limitations of NIV during pandemics.
• Analysis of dream patterns and themes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Relationship between stress, anxiety, and pandemic-related dreams.
• Melatonin supplements and their efficacy in treating sleep disorders.
• Role of melatonin in managing sleep disturbances during pandemics.
• Impact of COVID-19 vaccines on sleep patterns and quality.
• Long-term effects of vaccinations on sleep disorders.

Please review the journal Aims and Scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is March 31, 2024.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code EJYZN to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

Guest Advisor

Cecilia Cheng, University of Hong Kong

[email protected]

Cecilia Cheng is a professor of psychology at the University of Hong Kong, with expertise in various realms of psychology, including social, health, applied, personality, cross-cultural, and cyber-psychology. She has been elected as a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and has received prestigious awards including the Fulbright Senior Scholar Award and the ICP Early Career Research Award. Professor Cheng has also held editorial positions at several flagship journals in the field of psychology, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Health Psychology Review. At the University of Hong Kong, she has served as the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and currently the Associate Dean of the Graduate School.

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Intersection of AI and Sleep Medicine: Innovations, Challenges, and Ethical Considerations

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Intersection of AI and Sleep Medicine: Innovations, Challenges, and Ethical Considerations" in Nature and Science of Sleep.

Sleep disorders burden healthcare systems due to laborious diagnostics and limited workforce capacities. However, a wealth of data collected from sleep recordings, patient histories, and electronic medical records remains underutilized in current practices. Additionally, emerging data from wearables, nearables, and apps hold immense potential for understanding the long-term implications of sleep disorders.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may revolutionize sleep research and medicine by enhancing diagnostic efficiency and accuracy, predicting outcomes, and characterizing patient and disorder traits for optimized and personalized care. However, it is crucial to ensure the ethical design, development, and implementation of these methods while considering data privacy, transparency, validation best practices, and method reliability and generalizability.

This call for papers explores the latest advancements in AI in sleep medicine and research. It seeks to emphasize the translation of methodologies into clinical practice, focusing on the technical aspects while acknowledging the importance of ethics.

Topics of interest include:

• Automatic sleep study scoring
• Novel methods for sleep disorder detection
• Utilization of subjective and objective data
• Integration in electronic medical record systems
• Minimally invasive data collection for screening and long-term follow-up of the general population
• Validation and implementation
• Discussions on best practices, ethical considerations, and practical implementation of AI in sleep research and medicine

We welcome submissions of original research, reviews, perspectives, and commentaries. Join us in contributing to the conversation on the role of AI in sleep medicine and the considerations surrounding the translation to clinical practice. This collection will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers interested in the intersection of AI and sleep research.

Guest Advisors

Jon Skirnir Agustsson
VP Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
Nox Medical ehf, Reykjavik, Iceland

Anna Sigridur Islind
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science, Reykjavik University, Iceland

Henri Korkalainen
Adjunct Professor, Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

Submission Instructions
All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo a full peer-review; the Guest Advisor will not be handling submitted articles. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author submission instructions prior to submission.

Please submit your manuscript on our website. During submission, enter the promo code AUCFK to indicate that your article should be considered for this Collection.

The deadline for submitting manuscripts is 31 March 2024. If you have any questions, please contact Krista Thom at [email protected].

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The Role of Sleep in Selectively Consolidating Memories Based on Their Perceived Future Relevance During Encoding

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "The Role of Sleep in Selectively Consolidating Memories Based on Their Perceived Future Relevance During Encoding" in Nature and Science of Sleep.

Many studies have found that sleep has a beneficial effect on memory consolidation compared to wake. Beyond that, many have claimed that during sleep, memories with perceived high future relevance are preferentially consolidated. Recently, however, systematic reviews and meta-analyses have found that this selective consolidation effect of sleep is not as large as has been claimed, and might not even exist at all. It has also been suggested that different forms of memories are consolidated during different stages of sleep. However, this idea has also suffered from poor replicability of findings. 

The proposed role of sleep in selectively consolidating memories is important for basic research on the neurobiological function of sleep, and on the mechanisms through which sleep consolidates memories. For example, is memory consolidation during sleep based on passive protection or active processing? It could also have important implications for learning and memory, as it might allow us to predict how an event will be remembered based on whether it was followed by sleep or wake. 

Knowing which sleep stages consolidate which types of memory could also be important as technology used to manipulate sleep advances. If such patterns exist, mapping out which sleep stage consolidates which kinds of memories could allow us to select which memories are remembered and which are forgotten. 

This Article Collection will examine whether sleep (compared to wake) preferentially consolidates memories based on their perceived future relevance. “Future relevance” could be either intrinsic to the stimuli (e.g., using stimuli with varying degrees of emotional tone) or based on instructions during encoding or retrieval (e.g. by manipulating test expectations; telling participants they will be rewarded for good memory performance; or combining sleep with various memory paradigms that induce forgetting such as directed forgetting, retrieval-induced forgetting, or suppression-induced forgetting). 

We are also interested in studies examining whether particular sleep stages preferentially consolidate different kinds of memories based on their perceived future relevance, including studies that have examined this by manipulating sleep in various ways. Priority will be given to high-powered and pre-registered studies. We warmly welcome null findings, as we believe that the selective publication of significant findings creates exaggerated effect sizes in the literature and limits replicability. We are particularly interested in original research articles, but will also consider reviews, expert opinions, and commentaries that make a significant contribution to the field. 

Guest Advisor 

Dr. Per Davidson, 

Kristianstad University,

Kristianstad, Sweden 

Submission Instructions

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo full peer-review; Guest Advisors will not be handling submitted articles. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author instructions prior to submission.

Please submit your manuscript through the Dovepress website. During submission, enter the promo code BDQEV to indicate that your article should be considered for this Collection.

The manuscript submission deadline is 15 May 2024. If you have any questions about this Article Collection, please contact Krista Thom at [email protected].

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The Interplay Between Sleep and Pain

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "The Interplay Between Sleep and Pain" in Nature and Science of Sleep.

Among individuals with chronic pain, more than half suffer from sleep problems. Emerging evidence from different settings and methodological approaches suggests that sleep problems can lead to a greater risk and poorer prognosis for chronic pain conditions. This has led to the view that sleep and pain perpetuate and exacerbate each other. 

To develop more refined therapeutic strategies for individuals suffering from pain and sleep problems, we need a better understanding concerning the long-term trajectories of these conditions, the impact of sleep quality on pain management, and the underlying mechanisms of the sleep-pain relationship. 

Important questions remain about the role of sleep in the treatment of chronic pain, including what components of the sleep therapy are useful, in what format, and whether targeting sleep problems is effective for all types of patients. 

Moreover, technological innovations may offer great potential for a better understanding of the impact of different sleep characteristics in the development and clinical course of different types of chronic pain – knowledge that may have great implications for healthcare policy and clinical practice. 

We seek rigorous and high-quality observational, experimental, or intervention-based studies in the area of sleep and pain to address gaps in knowledge. We will consider reviews/meta-analyses, expert opinions, and commentaries if they make a significant contribution to the field. 

Topics of interest include: 

  • The impact of sleep quality on pain management, including pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches for the management of sleep problems
  • Mechanisms contributing to the sleep-pain relationship
  • Longitudinal studies and factors influencing the sleep-pain relationship
  • Causal approaches that address confounding and/or reverse causation
  • Technological innovations and their clinical relevance in individuals with sleep and pain
  • Population-specific considerations (e.g., psychosocial and sociodemographic factors)

Guest Advisor 

Dr. Eivind Schjelderup Skarpsno

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

Submission Instructions

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo full peer-review; Guest Advisors will not be handling submitted articles. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author instructions prior to submission.

Please submit your manuscript through the Dovepress website. During submission, enter the promo code ZATAE to indicate that your article should be considered for this Collection. Standard article publishing charges apply.

The manuscript submission deadline is 1 October 2024. If you have any questions about this Article Collection, please contact Krista Thom at [email protected].

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The Fundamentals of Sleep-Wake and Consciousness

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "The Fundamentals of Sleep-Wake and Consciousness" in Nature and Science of Sleep.

Consciousness remains one of the most elusive and fascinating mysteries of life. Every day and night, human beings and other species naturally transition between consciousness and unconsciousness, i.e., between wakefulness and sleep. A disruption of this process can result in sleep-wake disorders, such as central disorders of hypersomnolence, parasomnia, or insomnia. However, the alteration of consciousness or presence of unconsciousness is not limited to sleep-wake cycles but includes other prominent examples such as anesthesia, disorders of consciousness (e.g. due to brainstem lesions), epilepsy, and neuro-psychiatric disorders (e.g., encephalitis or psychosis).

The identification of essential brain structures and their associated networks involved in the regulation of sleep-wake functions and other altered states of consciousness is key to the understanding of the formation and modulation of consciousness. This fundamental pillar of neuroscience contributes to the understanding of (patho)physiology and forms the foundation for diagnosis, prognostication, and therapeutic approaches of many disorders.

We welcome original articles, study protocols, and reviews (narrative and systematic) that highlight new advances and provide insight into the fundamentals of sleep and consciousness. Although submissions should be sleep-wake related, this call emphasizes inter- and transdisciplinary research.

  • Areas of interest include but are not limited to:
  • Theoretical concepts
  • Innovative study protocols
  • Novel methodologies for monitoring sleep and consciousness
  • The impact of circadian rhythms on sleep-wake and consciousness
  • New therapeutic concepts for improving sleep-wake functions and promotion of consciousness
  • Public health implications of disorders affecting sleep-wake and consciousness

There is no restriction on species.

Guest Advisor

Dr. David Schreier, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Submission Instructions

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo full peer-review; Guest Advisors will not be handling submitted articles. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author instructions prior to submission.

Please submit your manuscript through the Dovepress website. During submission, enter the promo code VVTXY to indicate that your article should be considered for this Collection. Standard article publishing charges apply.

The manuscript submission deadline is 15 November 2024. If you have any questions about this Article Collection, please contact Krista Thom at [email protected].

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Dreaming of Victory: The Influence of Sleep on Athletic Performance

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Dreaming of Victory: The Influence of Sleep on Athletic Performance" in Nature and Science of Sleep.

The intricate relationship between sleep and athletic performance is an emerging field of interest within sports science and medicine. This Article Collection seeks to explore and deepen our understanding of how sleep impacts the physical and mental capabilities of athletes. We aim to address the dynamic interplay between sleep patterns and athletic performance, acknowledging the crucial role that rest and recovery play in achieving peak performance levels.

Recent studies underscore the significance of sleep as a cornerstone of athletic recovery and performance enhancement. Insufficient or disrupted sleep can severely impair cognitive functions, mood, and physiological recovery, leading to decreased performance and increased injury risk. However, there is a pressing need for evidence-based interventions and strategies tailored to the unique lifestyle and stressors of this population. This call for research aims to fill the gap in our current understanding and provide actionable insights for athletes, coaches, and practitioners.

We invite contributions that shed light on the multifaceted relationship between sleep and athletic performance. Submissions may cover a range of topics, including, but not limited to:

  • The effects of sleep quality and quantity on physical performance.
  • The impact of travel, training schedules, and psychological stress on sleep patterns.
  • The effectiveness of various sleep intervention strategies tailored for athletes.
  • The importance of napping on cognitive performance.

We welcome original research articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses that contribute to our understanding of how to optimize sleep for enhancing athletic performance and recovery.

By focusing on intervention research, this collection aims to offer new perspectives and evidence-based recommendations to improve sleep health among elite athletes. We encourage submissions from a diverse array of disciplines to foster a holistic understanding of the topic.

This call for papers represents an exciting opportunity for researchers and practitioners to advance the science of sleep and athletic performance. Join us in contributing to a specialized Collection that promises to inform best practices and foster innovative approaches to athlete health and well-being.

Guest Advisor

Matt Driller, Associate Professor in Sport and Exercise Science, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Submission Instructions

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo full peer-review; Guest Advisors will not be handling submitted articles. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author instructions prior to submission.

Please submit your manuscript through the Dovepress website. During submission, enter the promo code EABZJ to indicate that your article should be considered for this Collection. Standard article publishing charges apply.

The manuscript submission deadline is 30 September 2024. If you have any questions about this Article Collection, please contact Krista Thom at [email protected].

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Call For Papers


To see where Nature and Science of Sleep is indexed online view the Journal Metrics

What is the advantage to you of publishing in Nature and Science of Sleep?

  • It is an open access journal which means that your paper is available to anyone in the world to download for free directly from the Dove website.
  • Unlike many traditional journals, your paper will not be rejected due to lack of space. We are an electronic journal and there are no limits on the number or size of the papers we can publish.
  • The time from submission to a decision being made on a paper can, in many journals, take some months and this is very frustrating for authors. Nature and Science of Sleep has a quicker turnaround time than this. Generally peer review is complete within 3-4 weeks and the editor’s decision within 2-14 days of this. It is therefore very rare to have to wait more than 6 weeks for first editorial decision.
  • Many authors have found that our peer reviewer’s comments substantially add to their final papers.

To recover our editorial and production costs and continue to provide our content at no cost to readers we charge authors or their institution an article publishing charge.

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Yours sincerely
Professor Ahmed S. BaHammam
Editor-in-Chief
Nature and Science of Sleep

Email: Editor-in-Chief