Scientists have discovered that damage to myelin, the protective coating around nerve fibers, generates abnormal electrical patterns during sleep in people with multiple sclerosis (MS). This finding could eventually help doctors detect early brain changes and design new treatments to improve sleep quality in MS patients and those with other neurodegenerative diseases.

How Does Myelin Damage Affect Sleep Rhythms?

Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience presented findings at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Forum 2026 in Barcelona showing that mice with damaged myelin displayed electrical spikes during sleep similar to those seen in epilepsy or Alzheimer's disease (AD). These spikes occurred exclusively when the animals were asleep and were tightly linked to specific sleep stages.

The team analyzed electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings, which measure electrical brain activity, taken over multiple nights in mouse models with damaged myelin and AD. They compared these results with EEG data from sleeping patients with MS. The abnormal electrical activity was closely connected to sleep spindles, which are bursts of brain activity that occur during the second stage of non-rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Researchers also found that electrical rhythms during REM sleep, the stage associated with dreaming, became noticeably slower when myelin degenerated.

"Sleep disturbances are extremely common in neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, but the biological reasons for these problems remain poorly understood," said Dr. Mohit Dubey, a ZonMw Memorable Dementia Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience.

Dr. Mohit Dubey, ZonMw Memorable Dementia Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

Why Should MS Patients Care About This Discovery?

Sleep disturbances are a major quality-of-life issue for people with MS and AD. Poor sleep contributes to fatigue and cognitive decline, two symptoms that significantly impact daily functioning. Understanding the biological connection between myelin damage and disrupted sleep could lead to new strategies for improving both sleep and brain health in these conditions.

The research opens a promising avenue for using sleep recordings as a non-invasive biomarker, meaning a measurable indicator of disease activity. Sleep EEG recordings could potentially detect early changes in brain circuit function before clinical symptoms appear, allowing doctors to monitor disease progression more effectively. This is particularly valuable because current diagnostic methods often require more invasive procedures.

"Sleep recordings may provide a non-invasive way to detect early changes in brain circuit myelination in neurological disease. This could eventually help clinicians monitor disease progression," explained Dr. Dubey.

Dr. Mohit Dubey, ZonMw Memorable Dementia Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience

What Are the Next Steps in MS Sleep Research?

Dr. Dubey's future research will focus on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms linking myelin degeneration, sleep rhythms, and abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Currently, no treatments can repair damaged myelin, although some medications aim to slow the immune system's attack on the myelin sheath in MS. Understanding how myelin damage affects sleep could help researchers design non-invasive approaches that might repair myelin during sleep, when the brain is in a unique physiological state.

The strength of this research lies in combining sleep neuroscience with the study of demyelinating brain circuits, allowing scientists to examine how brain rhythms interact with disease-related changes. However, the work is primarily conducted in mice, and further studies are needed to fully understand how these mechanisms translate to human disease.

How Can MS Patients Support Brain Health While Awaiting New Treatments?

• Prioritize Sleep Quality: Since sleep disturbances are common in MS, maintaining consistent sleep schedules and discussing sleep problems with your healthcare team can help manage fatigue and cognitive symptoms.
• Explore Dietary Approaches: Research suggests that a ketogenic diet, high in fats and low in carbohydrates, may reduce inflammation and protect nerve cells in MS. Studies have linked the diet to improvements in fatigue, depression, and physical function.
• Monitor Vision Changes: Optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve, affects up to 70% of people with MS at some point. Researchers are investigating whether dietary interventions and targeted compounds may help protect vision without relying solely on corticosteroids.
• Work with Your Medical Team: If you have MS and another autoimmune condition, discuss whether a single medication like Mavenclad (cladribine) might manage both conditions, potentially reducing the need for multiple immunosuppressive therapies.

What Other MS Treatments Are Showing Promise?

Beyond sleep research, scientists are exploring multiple avenues to improve MS outcomes. Researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation received a $470,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Eye Institute to investigate how a ketogenic diet may protect vision in people with MS. The diet encourages the body to burn fats instead of sugar for energy, which may reduce inflammation and protect nerve cells.

In earlier work with MS mice, animals fed a ketogenic diet showed less vision loss and milder motor symptoms. The researchers discovered that the diet altered the gut microbiome, the collection of microbes living in the digestive tract, by increasing bacteria that produce compounds called indoles. These molecules enter the bloodstream and appear to limit optic nerve inflammation and support nerve recovery. The team will now study whether these compounds alone can provide similar benefits, potentially leading to nutritional supplements or therapies easier to use than maintaining a strict ketogenic diet.

"Our goal is to find non-steroidal methods to reduce the inflammation before it destroys the optic nerve," said Scott Plafker, PhD, the OMRF scientist leading the project.

Scott Plafker, PhD, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

Additionally, a registry study of eight adults in the French MS Registry found that Mavenclad (cladribine), an approved oral therapy for relapsing forms of MS, may also help manage certain coexisting autoimmune diseases. The treatment temporarily reduces immune T-cells and B-cells before allowing the immune system to rebuild, essentially resetting it. While some patients with conditions like ankylosing spondylitis or sarcoidosis remained stable on Mavenclad alone, others with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis still required separate treatments.

These emerging research directions suggest that MS treatment is moving toward more personalized approaches. Rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy, future care may involve tailoring interventions based on individual sleep patterns, dietary response, and coexisting conditions. As Dr. Dubey emphasized, sleep has often been overlooked in the study of neurodegenerative disease, but understanding its role could unlock new therapeutic opportunities for millions of people living with MS and related conditions.