This wearable patch could get you into REM sleep 43 minutes faster

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Something to look forward to: Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a soft patch that helps people enter REM sleep faster and stay in that stage longer, without drugs or surgery. In a study involving 28 people, participants who used the patch, called NEUSLeeP, reached REM sleep 43 minutes earlier than usual and remained in that stage for about 16 minutes longer.

The device works by combining two things that don't usually go together in a wearable: gentle ultrasound stimulation and electrodes that read brain activity. This allows it to reach deep brain regions associated with REM sleep while also tracking the brain's response in real time from outside the skull.

Kai Wing "Kevin" Tang, the recent UT biomedical engineering Ph.D. graduate who led the work, said the achievement, which was published in Nature Communications, marks new territory for the field.