Could sleep engineering be used to combat PTSD and depression?

PLoS Biol. 2026 Feb 23;24(2):e3003633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003633. eCollection 2026 Feb.

Abstract

Sleep engineering could be developed to provide a drug-free, non-invasive avenue to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Such an intervention would be greatly aided by the sophisticated detection of memory reactivations using machine learning classifiers.

MeSH terms

  • Depression* / physiopathology
  • Depression* / therapy
  • Humans
  • Machine Learning
  • Sleep* / physiology
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* / physiopathology
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* / therapy