A North Texas biotech company, working with researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas, has demonstrated a wearable sensor that measures key sleep-related hormones through sweat, offering a new approach to monitoring circadian health. UT Dallas bioengineers partnered with Allen-based EnLiSense to evaluate the company’s CORTI wearable platform, a perspiration-based electrochemical sensor that continuously monitors cortisol and melatonin, the two hormones that regulate the body’s sleep-wake cycle. The results were published in the October issue of Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X, marking the first study to demonstrate circadian rhythmicity of both hormones measured through sweat.
Most commercially available sleep wearables estimate sleep quality using indirect signals such as movement, heart rate, or body temperature. The CORTI platform is designed to directly measure biochemical markers tied to wakefulness and sleep. Cortisol promotes alertness, while melatonin signals the body to prepare for sleep. Measuring both hormones typically relies on saliva samples, considered the gold standard but impractical for continuous monitoring. In sleep studies, participants are often awakened multiple times overnight for sample collection. The sweat-based approach allows hormone levels to be monitored continuously through passive perspiration without external stimulation.
Validation Study
Researchers enrolled 43 participants who wore the sweat-based sensor continuously for 48 hours. During the study, saliva samples were collected 12 times and compared with readings from the wearable device. Researchers reported that results from both methods closely aligned, supporting the sensor’s ability to track hormone fluctuations over time. Annapoorna Ramasubramanya, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at UT Dallas and first author of the study, said: “Precise and continuous evaluation of cortisol and melatonin is essential for understanding and managing circadian health.”
Dr. Shalini Prasad, professor and department head of bioengineering at UT Dallas, noted that sleep disruption is closely linked to mental health, an area where continuous hormone monitoring could offer additional insight. Ramasubramanya received a New Investigator Award in September at the World Sleep Congress 2025 in Singapore.
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