Clinical Studies & Research

We conducted a 3+ year sleep study in our advanced sleep lab in Berkeley, CA and a home pilot with over 1,500 nights of data. Both our sleep study and our pilot were blind, controlled research studies that were overseen by our Scientific Advisory Board and approved by an independent Institutional Review Board.

Lab results

Our controlled sleep lab studies were conducted with adult participants, age 30-70. Each participant had at least two sleep sessions, one of which was a sham session (like a placebo – a session where they slept without the stimulation we were evaluating). Sleep activity was recorded using laboratory-grade EEG and EKG systems, and was scored by a certified polysomnography technician, using the same approach as any medical sleep lab.

Somnee uses personalized stimulation that gets better as it learns your brain rhythms and sleeping patterns.

Personalization enables faster sleep onset. Data from a sham-controlled real-world study, n=55 participants, 1,800+ nights.

Over 4x the effectiveness of Melatonin

The charts below show a comparison of Somnee’s effect on sleep from our most recent sleep lab study (n=31) and real-world study (n=55) with the published results for melatonin. On average, Somnee is 4x the effectiveness of a melatonin pill in improving sleep efficiency and duration.

Improvements in sleep efficiency

Improvements in sleep duration

Improvements in responder rate

Somnee Science Team Publications


Walker, M.P., Brakefield T., Morgan A., Hobson J.A., Stickgold, R.
Practice with sleep makes perfect: sleep-dependent motor skill learning.
Neuron, 35 (1), 205-211; 1737, 2002.


Yoo, S.S., Gujar, N., Hu, P., Jolesz, F.A., Walker, M.P.
The human emotional brain without sleep—a prefrontal amygdala disconnect.
Current Biology, 17 (20), R877-R878; 1531. 2007.


Walker, M.P., Brakefield T., Allan Hobson J., Stickgold, R.
Dissociable stages of human memory consolidation and reconsolidation.
Nature,425 (6958), 616-620; 1447. 2003.


Walker, M.P., Stickgold, R.
Sleep, memory, and plasticity.
Annu.Rev. Psychol. 57, 139-166; 1353. 2006.


Walker, M.P., Stickgold, R.
Sleep-dependent learning and memory consolidation.
Neuron 44 (1), 121-133; 1326. 2004.


Walker, M.P., van Der Helm, E.
Overnight therapy? The role of sleep in emotional brain processing.
Psychological bulletin 135 (5), 731     1264. 2009.


Walker, M.P.
The role of sleep in cognition and emotion.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1156 (1), 168-197 1185. 2009.


Perry, E., Walker, M.P., Grace, J., Perry, R.
Acetylcholine in mind: a neurotransmitter correlate of consciousness?
Trends in neurosciences 22 (6), 273-280; 1103. 1999.


Krause, A.J., Simon, E.B., Mander, B.A., Greer, S.M., Saletin, J.M., Goldstein, A.N., Walker, M.P.
The sleep-deprived human brain.
Nature Reviews Neuroscience 18 (7), 404-418; 1007. 2017.


Mander, B.A., Winer, J.R., Walker, M.P.
Sleep and human aging.
Neuron 94 (1), 19-36 959 2017.


Goldstein, A.N., Walker, M.P.
The role of sleep in emotional brain function.
Annual review of clinical psychology 10, 679-708 925. 2014.


Stickgold, R., Walker, M.P.
Sleep-dependent memory triage: evolving generalization through selective processing.
Nature Neuroscience 16 (2), 139-145 779. 2013.


Yoo, S.S., Hu, P.T., Gujar, N., Jolesz, F.A., Walker, M.P.
A deficit in the ability to form new human memories without sleep.
Nature Neuroscience 10 (3), 385-392. 2007.                  


Helfrich, R.F., Mander, B.A., Jagust, W.J, Knight, R.T. and Walker, M.
Old brains come uncoupled in sleep – slow wave-spindle synchrony, brain atrophy and forgetting.
Neuron, 97:1-10, 2018. PMID: 29249289


Winer, J.R., Mander, B.A., Helfrich, R.F., Maass, A., Harrison, T.M., Baker, S.L, Knight, R.T., Jagust, W.J. and Walker, M.P.
Sleep as a potential biomarker of tau and beta-amyloid burden in the human brain.
Journal of Neuroscience,doi.org/10.1523/JNEUOSCI.0503-19.2019, 2019.  PMID: 31209175


Helfrich, R.F., Lendner, J.D., Mander, B.A., Guillen, H., Paff, M., Mnatsakanyan, L.,Vadeera, S., Walker, M.P., Lin, J.J. and Knight, R.T.
Bidirectional prefrontal-hippocampal dynamics organize information transfer during sleep in humans.
Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11444-x, 10(1): 1-16, 2019. PMID: 31395890


Skelin, I., Zhang, H., Zheng, J., Ma, S., Mander, B.A., Knight, R. T., McNaughton, B.L. and Lin, J.J. 
Coupling between slow-waves and sharp-wave ripples engages distributed neural activity during
sleep in humans.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2012075118, 118(21) 1-10, 2021. PMID: 34001599


Helfrich, R.F., Lendner, J.D. and Knight, R.T.
Aperiodic sleep networks promote memory consolidation. 
Trends in Cognitive Science, 2175: 1-12, 2021.


Ayanampudi, V., Kumar, V., Krishnan,.A., Walker, M.P, Ivry, R.B., Knight, R.T. and Gurumoorthy, R.
Personalized transcranial alternating current stimulation improves sleep  quality: initial findings.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, doi 10.3389/fnhum.2022.1066453, 2023.


Helfrich, R. and Knight, R.T.
Making memories last: How sleep promotes neuroplasticity.
In: Changing Brains- in Honor of Helen Neville,
Routledge Press, Eds:. G. Grossi and A. Newman. 164-180, 2023.


Lendner, J.D., Niethard, N., Mander, B.A., van Schalkwijk, F.J., Schuh-hofer, S., Schmidt, H., Knight, R.T., Born, J., Walker, M.P., Lin, J.J. and Helfrich, R.F.
Human REM sleep controls neural excitability in support of memory formation.
Scientific Advances, doi:10.1126/sciadvj1895, 9:34,1-16, 2023.


Hahn, M.A., Lendner, J.D., Anwander, M., Slama, K.S.J., Knight, R.T., Lin, J.J. and Helfrich, R.F.  A tradeoff between efficiency and robustness in the hippocampal-neocortical memory network during sleep in humans and rodent sleep.
Cell Reports (in review).


Additional research

Personalized transcranial alternating current stimulation improves sleep quality. V. Ayanampudi, V.Kumar, A.Krishnan, M.P. Walker, R.B. Ivry, R.T. Knight, R. Gurumoorthy.

Safety meta-review of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) studies finds zero serious adverse effects across over 8,000 participants and 18,000 sessions.

Old Brains Come Uncoupled in Sleep: Slow Wave-Spindle Synchrony, Brain Atrophy, and Forgetting. Helfrich, R.F., Mander, B.A., Jagust, W.J, Knight, R.T. and Walker, M. Neuron, 97:1-10, 2018. PMID: 29249289.

Sleep as a potential biomarker of tau and beta-amyloid burden in the human brain. Winer, J.R., Mander, B.A., Helfrich, R.F., Maass, A., Harrison, T.M., Baker, S.L, Knight, R.T., Jagust, W.J. and Walker, M.P. Journal of Neuroscience, doi.org/10.1523/JNEUOSCI.0503-19.2019, 2019. PMID: 31209175.

Bidirectional prefrontal-hippocampal dynamics organize information transfer during sleep in humans. Helfrich, R.F., Lendner, J.D., Mander, B.A., Guillen, H., Paff, M., Mnatsakanyan, L., Vadeera, S., Walker, M.P., Lin, J.J. and Knight, R.T. Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-11444-x, 10(1): 1-16, 2019. PMID: 31395890.

Aperiodic sleep networks promote memory consolidation. Helfrich, R.F., Lendner, J.D. and Knight, R.T. Trends in Cognitive Science, 2175: 1-12, 2021.

Human REM sleep controls neural excitability in support of memory formation. Lendner, J.D., Niethard, N., Mander, B.A., van Schalkwijk, F.J., Schuh-hofer, S., Schmidt, H., Knight, R.T., Born, J., Walker, M.P., Lin, J.J. and Helfrich, R.F. Scientific Advances, doi:10.1126/sciadvj1895, 9:34,1-16, 2023.