BackgroundThis meta-analysis aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on sleep quality in patients with depression and to explore the dose–response relationships of key intervention parameters.MethodsA comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Standardized mean differences (SMDs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects model. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses were performed to examine potential dose–response relationships.ResultsA total of 17 publications, including 19 randomized controlled trial comparisons and 1,457 participants, were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Pooled estimates indicated that exercise interventions significantly improved sleep quality [SMD = −0.37, 95% CI: −0.48 to −0.27]. Dose–response modeling suggested that exercise doses around 312.75 MET·min/week may be associated with greater improvements [Hedges’ g = −0.51, 95% CI: −0.71 to −0.31]. Subgroup analyses suggested that mind–body exercise [SMD = −0.49, 95% CI: −0.63 to −0.35], durations of 9–12 weeks [SMD = −0.49, 95% CI: −0.74 to −0.24], fewer than two sessions per week [SMD = −0.47, 95% CI: −0.65 to −0.29], and sessions longer than 90 minutes [SMD = −0.42, 95% CI: −0.66 to −0.18] may be associated with favorable changes.ConclusionsExercise interventions may improve sleep quality in individuals with depression, with potential benefits at low doses. These findings support individualized exercise prescriptions, but larger multicenter RCTs with long-term follow-up are needed to confirm the dose–response pattern and subgroup findings.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD420251105568, identifier PROSPERO (CRD420251105568).
Post-intracerebral hemorrhage depression comorbid with obstructive sleep apnea and REM sleep behavior disorder: a case report and literature review
We report a 63-year-old male with post-cerebral hemorrhage depressive disorder. Previous adequate-dose, full-course antidepressant treatment yielded no significant improvement in depression, anxiety, or sleep disturbance. Detailed history taking and polysomnography (PSG) confirmed comorbid severe obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (RBD). Without adjusting antidepressants, the patient first received continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for OSAHS, followed by individualized pharmacotherapy for RBD. With the improvement of sleep architecture and respiratory events, obvious remission of depressive and anxiety symptoms and substantial recovery of daytime function were observed. This case emphasizes the bidirectional relationship between sleep and mood disorders. For post-stroke depression (PSD) poorly responsive to antidepressants, active sleep evaluation, multidisciplinary collaboration, and targeted management of comorbid sleep disorders may be crucial to enhance therapeutic efficacy.
The Download: metric weaknesses and AI elephant warnings
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
The inevitable weakness of metrics
There are plenty of useful things a metric can reveal. There are even more that it can obscure or corrupt.
Like a lot of people bitten by the self-quantifying bug, I started gathering personal data to pursue a nebulous collection of goals and desires. I wanted to feel better physically and emotionally, get outside more, and bring order to the messiness and uncertainty of my daily existence.
But external metrics and data can never capture what’s truly important. Worse, they inevitably redefine your core sense of what’s important, whether you’re aware of the trap or not.
Dive into the dangers of quantifying our lives with metrics.
—Bryan Gardiner
This story is from the next edition of our magazine, which is all about engineering. Subscribe now to get a copy when it lands!
Elephant alert! AI warning systems aim to avoid deadly clashes
India is home to about 60% of the world’s wild Asian elephants, and around 80% of their habitat lies outside protected areas. That brings them into close contact with people, and clashes can turn lethal: there have been some 3,000 human casualties in the last five years and over 1,000 elephant deaths since 2014.
In response, state forest departments, NGOs, and locals are designing, testing, and deploying a range of AI systems that cut response and warning times to minutes—or even seconds. They range from wildlife eyes in Maharashtra to infrared drones in Chhattisgarh.
Find out how they work in our interactive map.
—Kanika Gupta
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The US has allowed Anthropic to release Mythos 5 to “trusted” orgs
About 100 US companies and federal agencies now have access. (Semafor)
+ The White House said appropriate safeguards were now in place. (WSJ $)
+ The US had restricted both models over national security concerns. (BBC)
+ Which raised new questions about AI safety. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A Chinese AI model has matched Mythos in finding security bugs
Security researchers say Zhipu AI is poised to reset the AI race. (WSJ $)
+ It’s sparked alarm that US restrictions are boosting China’s progress. (NYT $)
+ Although it still can’t match Anthropic or OpenAI on general tasks. (Verge)
+ In the AI race, China is eyeing a come-from-behind victory. (WP $)
3 Apple is seeking approval to buy chips from a blacklisted Chinese firm
It’s lobbying the White House for clearance to buy from ChangXin. (FT $)
+ ChangXin is on a Pentagon list of firms with Chinese military ties. (WP $)
+ Chipmakers are profiting off AI at the expense of everyone else. (WSJ $)
+ The US is banning imports of more Chinese technology. (Reuters $)
+ But Chinese tech companies feel optimistic. (MIT Technology Review)
4. South Korea plans to train its entire military as “drone warriors”
It wants to train all 500,000 personnel. (Reuters $)
+ And produce 110,000 drones by 2029. (Ars Technica)
5 Google has limited Meta’s use of its Gemini AI models
Meta wanted more compute than Google could provide. (FT $)
+ The cap has disrupted and delayed some Meta AI projects. (Bloomberg $)
6 Zuckerberg wants Meta to work with Polymarket and Kalshi
Meta wants its own prediction market, but without real-money bets. (NYT $)
+ The partnerships could hedge risks and accelerate development. (Reuters $)
7 Extreme heat is putting already hot data centers under pressure
Severe weather is now the leading cause of loss for data centers. (CNBC)
+ Heat waves also mess with your brain. (MIT Technology Review)
8 Android phones alerted millions moments before Venezuela’s earthquakes
They gave users between seconds and up to two minutes’ notice. (NYT $)
9 Scientists think Uranus and Neptune may not be the icy giants we imagined
They may have a magma ocean brewing on the inside. (Gizmodo)
10 Too much sleep may be as harmful as too little
A new study suggests 6.4–7.8 hours is the sweet spot. (Economist $)
Quote of the day
“This kind of powerful weapon that can alter the landscape of cyberwarfare can’t remain solely in American hands.”
—360 Security CEO Zhou Hongyi tells a cybersecurity conference in Beijing why Chinese AI firms need to match the capabilities of their rivals in the US, The Wall Street Journal reports.
One More Thing
GETTY
Why Generation Z falls for online misinformation
Research shows that young people are more likely to believe and pass on misinformation if they feel a sense of common identity with the person who shared it in the first place.
Offline, teenagers are likely to draw on the context that their communities provide. Social media, however, promotes credibility based on identity rather than community. And when trust is built on identity, authority shifts to influencers.
As young people participate in more political discussions online, those who have successfully cultivated identity-based credibility could become de facto community leaders, attracting like-minded people and steering the conversation. While that has the potential to empower marginalized groups, it also exacerbates the threat of misinformation.
Find out what we can all learn about how young people evaluate truth online.
—Jennifer Neda John
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ The Euclid space telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of the Milky Way.
+ Here’s a lovely, lilting medieval bardcore cover of Daft Punk’s electronic classic Veridis Quo.
+ A toilet plunger becomes an unlikely engineering breakthrough in this quest to build a better blowgun.
Association between objective sleep structure and suicidal ideation in patients with depression: a study based on polysomnographic regression and cluster analysis
BackgroundDepression is a common mental disorder, and current suicidal ideation (SI) is a clinically important symptom. Sleep disturbance is common in depression, but the relationship between objective sleep architecture and current SI remains unclear. This study examined associations between objective sleep structure and current SI and explored whether sleep-clinical clustering could support exploratory SI stratification.Methods287 patients meeting DSM-5 criteria for depressive disorder underwent clinical assessment and overnight polysomnography (PSG). Current SI was assessed using item 3 of the HAMD-17. Binary logistic regression evaluated factors associated with current SI. K-Means clustering (K = 3) was performed using standardized HAMD score, PSQI score, AHI, total awakenings, N3%, R%, and sleep efficiency. Quantitative cluster validation, sensitivity analyses excluding HAMD from clustering, and ROC-based performance metrics were additionally conducted.ResultsCurrent SI was present in 50.52% (145/287) of patients. In the individual-variable regression model, only HAMD total score was independently associated with current SI (OR = 1.683, p < 0.001). Cluster analysis identified three subgroups with distinct current SI rates: Cluster 1 (deep-sleep dominant, 37.04%), Cluster 2 (high-arousal-apnea, 70.37%), and Cluster 3 (low-arousal-subjective insomnia, 60.80%). The K = 3 solution showed WSS = 1450.71, mean silhouette = 0.204, and Davies-Bouldin index = 1.679. In the demographic-adjusted model, membership in Clusters 2 + 3 was associated with current SI (OR = 3.152, 95% CI: 1.883-5.274, p < 0.001; AUC = 0.700, 95% CI: 0.639-0.760). When HAMD was excluded from clustering, the association remained (OR = 2.669, 95% CI: 1.598-4.458, p < 0.001), whereas additional adjustment for HAMD total score attenuated the primary cluster association (OR = 0.842, 95% CI: 0.411-1.725, p = 0.639).ConclusionsDepression severity was the primary factor associated with current SI. PSG-derived sleep-clinical clusters may help characterize heterogeneous presentations of current SI, but their incremental value beyond depressive severity should be interpreted as exploratory and validated in larger longitudinal samples.
Subjective sleepiness and objective sleep propensity in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder referred for multiple sleep latency testing
IntroductionAdults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often report excessive daytime sleepiness, but the relationship between subjective sleepiness and objective sleep propensity remains unclear. We examined this relationship in adults referred for Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) evaluation, using a clinical comparison group with excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) but without ADHD.MethodsIn this retrospective cross-sectional study, we analyzed medical records of 130 adults aged 18 years or older who underwent MSLT between January and December 2021, including 68 adults in the ADHD group and 62 in the EDS-only group. Subjective sleepiness was assessed by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) and objective sleep propensity by mean MSLT sleep latency, with MSLT positivity defined as mean sleep latency ≤ 480 s. Associations between ESS scores and mean sleep latency were assessed within each group, and correlation coefficients were compared between groups using Fisher’s r-to-z transformation.ResultsESS scores did not differ significantly between groups, with median scores of 14.0 in the ADHD group and 13.0 in the EDS-only group. In contrast, objective sleep propensity differed significantly: median mean sleep latency was longer in the ADHD group than in the EDS-only group (432.0 s vs 322.0 s, p = 0.008), and MSLT positivity was less frequent in the ADHD group (61.8% vs 87.1%, p = 0.001). Within the ADHD group, ESS scores were not significantly correlated with mean sleep latency, including among MSLT-positive cases. A significant inverse correlation was observed in the MSLT-positive EDS-only subgroup, although formal comparison of correlation coefficients did not demonstrate a statistically significant between-group difference in the ESS–MSLT relationship. SOREMP frequencies were numerically higher in the EDS-only group but did not differ significantly between groups.DiscussionThese findings suggest that subjective sleepiness complaints and objective sleep propensity may not closely align in adults with ADHD referred for sleep evaluation, and support the need for integrated psychiatric and sleep-medicine assessment when such patients present with excessive daytime sleepiness.
<![CDATA[Expert shares ADHD medication sequencing tips and practical insomnia strategies, from stimulants to melatonin, for kids and adults.]]>
Heat waves mess with your brain. Scientists are trying to figure out why.
It’s been hot in London this week. Really hot. A dangerous heat wave has hit Western Europe. Yesterday, the UK recorded its highest ever June temperature at 36.1 °C (about 97 °F). But as the weather app on my phone confirmed, it felt like 39 °C.
It’s frightening that we are seeing such temperatures in the UK in June. According to the Met Office, the country’s national weather and climate service, June temperatures peaked at an average 19 °C (66 °F) in England between 1991 and 2020. Across Europe, the heat wave is likely to cause thousands of deaths. There will be other awful consequences for agriculture, infrastructure, and the health system.
But this week I want to look at what the heat does to our minds and brains. Personally, I’ve found it almost impossible to think straight. The heat is distracting and my mind is foggy. I dread to think about the conditions of people who work outdoors, in even hotter regions.
It’s not just exhaustion and confusion. The effects of heat on the brain can be deadly. And researchers are still trying to figure out why.
Studies have confirmed that as temperatures rise, people seem to get more irritable and more violent. Most of these studies are based on associations, though. It’s difficult to directly study how a heat wave might affect our thinking, says Catherine Thompson, a cognitive psychologist at Liverpool Hope University.
She has been studying the effects of extreme heat on firefighters instead. It’s easier to measure people’s cognitive skills before and after they undergo scheduled training that involves entering a burning building.
It’s early days, but the team found that firefighters found it harder to focus and control their attention immediately after heat exposure—something people in heat waves can empathize with, I’m sure.
The firefighters’ skills returned to normal after 20 minutes or so of cooling down. But they’d experienced just 15 minutes of intense heat exposure. Thompson doesn’t know what the effects of living through a days-long heat wave might be—or how long they’ll last. Figuring that out might involve shipping cognitive test kits to thousands of people during the few days’ notice of an impending heat wave. “My guess [is] that no one’s done it because it’s just so difficult to do,” says Thompson.
Still, researchers can learn about some of the impacts of heat waves through studies after the fact. And those studies suggest that the heat seems to have more disastrous outcomes for people with mental-health disorders.
Those outcomes become apparent when temperatures rise above what is considered typical for a given region. “There seems to be a correlation where the hotter it gets, especially during the hottest times of the year, the worse the mental-health outcomes,” says Joshua Wortzel, who directs the Heat-Mind Lab at Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut.
In a study published in 2023, Emma Lawrence at the University of Oxford, who studies the effect of climate change on mental health, and her colleagues reviewed the evidence linking mental-health outcomes to ambient outdoor temperatures. They found that during heat waves, there was a 9.7% increase in the rate of hospital admissions for people with such conditions.
“People who live with mental-health conditions are among the most susceptible to the physical impacts of heat,” says Lawrence. People with schizophrenia were found to have been three times more likely to die during the record-breaking heat wave that affected Canada in 2021, for example.
In order to protect people, we need a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these effects. After all, a lot of things change when it’s very, very hot. Some people may end up stuck indoors, avoiding outdoor play and exercise, and it can be difficult to get a good night of sleep, for example. Sleep, socializing, and exercise are all really important for our mental health.
But whether unusual heat does something specific to our brains is, as Wortzel puts it, “the million-dollar question.”
Research in lab animals suggests that excessive heat can alter the way chemical signals work in our brain. The levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, for example, seem to increase when rats and mice are exposed to high temperatures, according to multiple studies. The heat may also interfere with the way networks in our brains communicate with each other. It might affect the way oxygen reaches our brain cells.
“There are so many biological reasons why brains may be negatively affected by heat,” says Wortzel.
Emerging research suggests that for whatever reason, children and young people are among the most vulnerable. In research published earlier this week, Wortzel and his colleagues saw a 2.97% increase in the suicide rate among people in the US aged 15 to 24 for every 1 °C increase in average monthly temperature. That’s more than double the increase seen in people over the age of 24 (which is concerning in its own right).
Other work hints that heat exposure might have long-term consequences for children’s brain development. Babies who were exposed to either extreme heat or cold appeared to have altered white matter by the time they were nine to 12 years old—although it’s not clear how these impacts might affect an individual child.
“It seems that extreme temperature exposure for very young children may affect their brain development,” says Lawrence, who spoke to me from Oxford. She was meant to be in London for Climate Action Week, but her event, which focused on extreme heat, ended up being canceled … owing to the extreme heat.
We are living through the effects of climate change. And that brings a new urgency to the question of how heat affects our brains. Children born in 2020 are predicted to experience around seven times the number of heat waves their grandparents did, says Lawrance. “[We] need to be serious about adapting to a warming world.”
This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here.
What is pulmonary hypertension and why would a new GLP-1 help?
On Tuesday STAT reported on a mystery patient with obesity, sleep apnea, and pulmonary hypertension who’d received an obesity drug not yet approved by federal drug regulators. The identity of the 79-year-old who won access in April to the Eli Lilly experimental drug retatrutide under a compassionate use program — typically reserved for people who are terminally ill — is still unknown.
But the report has raised interest in pulmonary hypertension. Given the unusual circumstances of the application, STAT had asked the White House if the patient was President Trump. After initially demurring, a spokesman said after publication that the drug was not for the president.
Affiliate Updates: Summer 2026
An IOCDF Affiliate carries out the mission of the International OCD Foundation through programs at the local community level within the United States. Each Affiliate is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization run entirely by dedicated volunteers.
Below will be quarterly updates from our Affiliates, organized by state. Click the (+) to open each menu and read updates and find contact information for clinics near you.
The post Affiliate Updates: Summer 2026 appeared first on International OCD Foundation.
<![CDATA[Phase 3 data show adjunctive seltorexant eases depression and insomnia with lessened weight gain and somnolence.]]>