Falling asleep follows a predictable bifurcation dynamic

作者：Junheng Li, Anastasia Ilina, Robert L. Peach, Tianyu Wei, E. J. Rhodes, Valeria Jaramillo, Inês R. Violante, Mauricio Barahona, Derk‐Jan Dijk, Nir Grossman · 发表于：Nature Neuroscience · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41593-025-02091-1 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Sleep and Wakefulness Research、EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces、Neural dynamics and brain function

Sleep is a fundamental part of our lives; yet, how our brain falls asleep remains one of the most enduring mysteries of neuroscience. Here we report a new conceptual framework to analyze and model this phenomenon. The framework represents the changes in brain electroencephalogram activity during the transition into sleep as a trajectory in a normalized feature space. We use the framework to show that the brain's wake-to-sleep transition follows bifurcation dynamics with a distinct tipping point preceded by a critical slowing down. We validate the bifurcation dynamics in two independent datasets, which include more than 1,000 human participants. Finally, we demonstrate the framework's utility by predicting a person's progression into sleep in real time with seconds temporal resolution and over 0.95 average accuracy.