Promoting sleep through electrical vestibular stimulation

According to recent research, the vestibular system is not only involved in its primary functions, such as maintaining balance and perceiving movements, but it also seems to have a role in sleep regulation. In recent years, several studies started to take advantage of this function to influence sleep by stimulating the vestibular system. The vestibular system can be stimulated with two main methodologies: mechanical stimulation, through the help of rocking beds, and electrical stimulation, applying electrical current to the mastoid bones to elicit the vestibular nerve (Galin et al., 2025). While mechanical stimulation showed beneficial effects on sleep, favouring sleep entrance and deepening sleep (Bayer et al., 2011; Perrault et al., 2019), electrical stimulation remains poorly explored, with studies applying it before sleep onset and measuring its effects mainly with subjective questionnaires (Curry et al., 2024; Goothy et al., 2023; Goothy & McKeown, 2021). The present study proposes to investigate the effects of electrical vestibular stimulation applied during an afternoon nap on both subjective and physiological sleep in a group of good sleepers.