SleepOMICS: How Big Data Can Revolutionize Sleep Science

Abstract

Sleep disorders have reached epidemic proportions worldwide, affecting the youth as well as the elderly, crossing the entire lifespan in both developed and developing countries. “Real-life” behavioral (sensor-based), molecular, digital, and epidemiological big data represent a source of an impressive wealth of information that can be exploited in order to advance the field of sleep research. It can be anticipated that big data will have a profound impact, potentially enabling the dissection of differences and oscillations in sleep dynamics and architecture at the individual level (“sleepOMICS”), thus paving the way for a targeted, “one-size-does-not-fit-all” management of sleep disorders (“precision sleep medicine”).