REVIEW article
Front. Behav. Neurosci.
Sec. Learning and Memory
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2025.1542462
This article is part of the Research TopicPBM and targeted photostimulation in the context of memory mechanisms and spatial cognitionView all articles
Enhancing Sleep, Wakefulness, and Cognition with Transcranial Photobiomodulation: A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted
Naomi L. Gaggi1*
Zamfira Parincu1Anna Peterson1Courtney O'Brien1
Korey Kam2
Indu Ayappa2Andrew Varga2
Dan Vlad Iosifescu1,3
Ricardo S. Osorio1,3- 1Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, United States
- 2Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
- 3Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, North Carolina, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Disruptions in sleep are common across clinical populations, particularly those with neurological and psychiatric disorders, making restorative sleep and sustained wakefulness a public health priority. Sleep is essential for brain function, impacting cognition in addition to serving as a critical factor in memory consolidation and healthy aging. Neuromodulation via transcranial photobiomodulation (t-PBM) increases cerebral mitochondrial activity and blood flow. These effects may underlie improvements in sleep quality and wakefulness observed after t-PBM. In this systematic review, we summarize the current literature across clinical and healthy populations, which describes t-PBM's potential to improve sleep, wakefulness, and cognition. The scope of this review also includes t-PBM’s effect on the brain's glymphatic system and blood flow, the potential of this strategy to augment alertness, wakefulness, and associated cognitive processes, and the suggestion for targeted t-PBM application for future research based on the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of t-PBM and wakefulness across diverse clinical populations.
Keywords: transcranial photobiomodulation, Sleep, Wakefulness, Cognition versus during wakeful Deleted: scoping 4.3 The Future of Transcranial Photobiomodulation on Sleep, and Related Cognition Indent: Left: 0.5", First line: 0", Line spacing: single Deleted: ¶ Formatted: Line spacing: single Formatted: Font color: Text 1, Spanish Formatted: Line spacing: single Formatted: Font color: Text 1 Formatted: Line spacing: single Formatted: Indent: Left: 0.31"
Received: 09 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gaggi, Parincu, Peterson, O'Brien, Kam, Ayappa, Varga, Iosifescu and Osorio. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Naomi L. Gaggi, Grossman School of Medicine, New York University, New York, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.