Sleep loss dulls alertness and coordination,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0can\u00a0produce effects\u00a0similar\u00a0to\u00a0severe intoxication, making actions like driving incredibly\u00a0risky.\u00a0But\u00a0there’s\u00a0no\u00a0clinical\u00a0test for\u00a0determining\u00a0when someone is dangerously sleep deprived. Now, researchers report a step toward a\u00a0non-invasive\u00a0test for sleep deprivation in ACS’\u00a0Journal of Proteome Research. In a study of 20 men, they\u00a0identified\u00a0molecular differences in saliva after a full night’s rest and 24 hours without sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Drowsy driving contributes to tens of thousands of crashes each year in the U.S.\u00a0As a result,\u00a0some states\u00a0have\u00a0instituted laws\u00a0to\u00a0deter tired\u00a0drivers.\u00a0So, Thomas Kraemer and colleagues\u00a0wanted to see if\u00a0saliva\u00a0contains\u00a0metabolites\u00a0that\u00a0change\u00a0after\u00a0sleep loss,\u00a0with the hopes of\u00a0one day developing\u00a0a test for sleepiness that could be conducted\u00a0anywhere\u00a0from the roadside to a clinical setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Until now, sleep deprivation has been impossible to measure\u00a0biochemically\u00a0– and yet it is one of the greatest burdens of our time. This study introduces the first direct biomarkers\u00a0of sleep loss in saliva under real-world conditions,\u00a0marking a milestone in forensic\u00a0investigations.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Thomas Kraemer,\u00a0corresponding author of the study<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The team\u00a0recruited 20 healthy young adult males who usually sleep\u00a0seven to nine\u00a0hours every night.\u00a0Participants completed three sleep scenarios in a random order, each separated by a week: deprivation (one night without sleep), restriction (four nights with two\u00a0hours’\u00a0less sleep than usual) and well\u00a0rested\u00a0(around\u00a0eight hours’\u00a0sleep).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers collected saliva before and after each\u00a0scenario and\u00a0analyzed the samples’ metabolite compositions.\u00a0Using statistical analyses, they\u00a0determined\u00a010\u00a0molecular\u00a0differences\u00a0between\u00a0sleep-deprived and well-rested\u00a0samples. In contrast, the sleep-restricted\u00a0state\u00a0showed no significant metabolic difference from the rested state.\u00a0Then\u00a0the team\u00a0developed\u00a0and trained\u00a0a predictive model based on\u00a0the varying\u00a0saliva metabolites, and it\u00a0correctly\u00a0identified\u00a0samples\u00a0from\u00a0sleep-deprived\u00a0individuals\u00a094% of the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mistakes that the model made were\u00a0likely attributable\u00a0to individual metabolic processes.\u00a0For example,\u00a0after\u00a0being awake for a day, some participants\u00a0didn’t\u00a0return to a fully rested metabolic profile\u00a0even\u00a0after eight hours of sleep, suggesting that may not be enough\u00a0time\u00a0for everyone\u00a0to fully recover.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These findings\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0that\u00a0a collection of salivary metabolites forms\u00a0a\u00a0“sleepiness fingerprint,”\u00a0which holds potential for situations\u00a0such as roadside checks,\u00a0where\u00a0accurately\u00a0detecting\u00a0sleep deprivation is needed.\u00a0Therefore, the team is\u00a0next\u00a0undertaking a large-scale international\u00a0assessment\u00a0of the predictive model,\u00a0expanding tests to\u00a0over 1,000 samples collected from shift workers, women and\u00a0frequent\u00a0drivers, says Kraemer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
American Chemical Society<\/a><\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Scholz, M., et al. (2026). Leveraging the Metabolic Fingerprint of Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Restriction for Forensic Applications: A Machine Learning Study in Oral Fluid Metabolomics. Journal of Proteome Research. DOI:\u00a010.1021\/acs.jproteome.5c01064.\u00a0https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.jproteome.5c01064<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sleep loss dulls alertness and coordination,\u00a0and\u00a0it\u00a0can\u00a0produce effects\u00a0similar\u00a0to\u00a0severe intoxication, making actions like driving incredibly\u00a0risky.\u00a0But\u00a0there’s\u00a0no\u00a0clinical\u00a0test for\u00a0determining\u00a0when someone is dangerously sleep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,207783,60,2165,80927,89,2686],"class_list":["post-482823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-intoxication","tag-ireland","tag-metabolites","tag-proteome","tag-research","tag-sleep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}