Feasibility of Detecting Within Subject Differences in Sleepiness with NextSense Earbud Electroencephalography Devices

Detection of "sleepiness" has for more than four decades relied upon methods that acquire the electroencephalogram (EEG) from multiple surface electrodes applied to the scalp and hardware that amplifies and stores information on a central processing unit (CPU). There are substantial limitations to this methodology beyond the fact that it is time, labor, and cost intensive. Such procedures restrict a subject's freedom of movement and necessitate that patients are monitored by trained staff in an accredited laboratory which levies substantial time and financial burdens upon patients and families. Finally, the test-re-test reliability and utility of testing paradigms reliant solely on an EEG 'signature' to detect statistically meaningful - let alone clinically meaningful - changes is dubious, and has come under increased scrutiny.

This study will assess whether novel wearable technology (NextSense EEGBuds and/or Ellcie Healthy Glasses) are able to detect differences in onset to sleep in patients diagnosed as having one of the central disorders of hypersomnolence (e.g., narcolepsy type 1 or type 2, or idiopathic hypersomnia) while using their prescribed wake promoting medication(s) versus while they are not medicated, and how it's sensitivity compares to differences as detected by the standard MWT. The two study visits will occur within 16 days of one another.