Canadian Sleep Repository
A new national platform to foster collaboration among sleep and chronobiology researchers and connect sleep sciences with other fields
The Canadian Sleep Repository (Repository) is a centralized, secure platform that pools sleep and chronobiology-related data (e.g., polysomnography, portable EEG, actigraphy, heart rate, body temperature and questionnaires), along with participant demographics and health information for registered open-access data sharing.
AIM: To support large-scale, data-driven sleep and chronobiology research by enabling standardized data sharing and collaboration across scientists. By integrating diverse datasets, the initiative may notably advance understanding of the phenomenology of sleep, its relation to sociodemographic and environmental factors, as well as sleep health and sleep disorders.
Repository Design
The Repository is hosted on the Cardio-Neuro-Mind Data Platform (CNMDP) at The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center (Ontario Canada). The CNMDP supports comprehensive data management, analysis, quality control and assurance, and secure storage of multimodal data sources, including REDCap (surveys and assessments), and XNAT (imaging and EEG). The Repository consent form will include an optional choice for participants to allow their Repository data to be shared with provincial data centers (e.g., Population Data BC, ICES [Ontario], the NBData, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) and Health Data Nova Scotia), a process that may be facilitated by Health Data Research Network Canada. This sharing would enable linkage with provincial health administrative databases to examine health service use and health outcomes.
Research studies (i.e., “the initial project”) that include sleep or chronobiology-related measurements – such as in-lab polysomnography, portable EEG, actigraphy and/or continuous heart rate or temperature recordings – will be eligible to contribute data to the Repository.
To ensure consistency and usability across datasets, the Repository team will conduct a harmonization process prior to integration in the Repository. This process involves aligning sleep/chronobiology, health, and demographic information collected from multiple sources into standardized formats. All datasets will be mapped to a common data structure using predefined variables and coding conventions consistent with the Repository’s metadata framework. For sleep recordings, this process includes harmonizing channel labels, documenting technical specifications (e.g., sampling frequencies, recording parameters), and identifying and documenting inconsistencies in signal quality or sleep stage reporting.
Process to Donate
1. Register your study on the Repository by clicking on this link (Link to come in January 2026). You will need to provide documents confirming your local research ethics approval, and complete the Data Intake Form. This form documents the format of essential data components such as sleep recording type, signals and sampling frequencies, scoring annotations, and any pre-processing applied to the data.
2. Documentation of informed consent
a. After signing the consent form from your initial project, your participants would sign the REPOSITORY CONSENT FORM. When uploading data to the platform, you will be asked for a copy of both the initial project’s consent form and the Repository consent.
OR
b. If your initial project’s ethics approbation covers open access sharing, the data contributor can proceed simply with your own consent form.
3. Wherever possible, your participants should complete a standardized REPOSITORY QUESTIONNAIRE. which captures key participant information including demographics (based on the Consortium’s EDI committee recommendations), physical and mental health status. The Repository team will provide you with a specific RedCap link to distribute this questionnaire to your participants.
4. You may begin uploading participant data onto the Repository at any stage during or after the data collection process. You can determine the date after which your data will be made available to other researchers.
5. Upon uploading data to the Registry, all files are automatically de-identified (e.g. EDFs headers are stripped from any name, DoB or other personal information) and recorded using a unique Repository ID code.
6. The Repository team oversees harmonisation, validation and quality checks processes.
7. Verified data will be indexed and linked with associated REDCap metadata before becoming searchable within the Repository platform. General information about the datasets available will be posted on this website when data becomes available.
Process to Request Data Access
1. Submit Initial Inquiry
The investigator submits a data access inquiry through to the Repository portal, including a brief project description and requested datasets.
2. Repository Data Access Committee (DAC) Review
The request is reviewed by the Repository DAC to ensure compliance with data governance requirements, ethical standards, and Repository use policies.
3. Institutional Ethics Review
After DAC pre-approval, the investigator obtains Research Ethics Board (REB) approval from their home institution and provides documentation to the Repository Data Manager and submits all REB documents in the Repository portal.
4. Data Sharing Agreement Execution
Upon final approval, the investigator completes and signs the required data sharing agreement.
5. User Account Provisioning & Onboarding
The requesting PI and approved study team members complete the Repository onboarding process. User accounts are created, and dataset-specific access is provisioned.
6. Access Granted
Users receive access to the approved dataset(s) and may begin secondary analysis in accordance with Repository and CNMDP terms of use.
7. Reporting
The requesting PI or their delegate will be asked to complete a primary report after 12 months of data access to document:
Progress update on analyses and the preparation of scientific communications
When analyses have been completed, confirmation that they destroyed the databases
References (and where possible links) of all publications, reports, briefing notes and knowledge mobilization products created based on the Repository data
Amounts and sources of funding acquired for the secondary analyses project
8. Annual Renewal & Compliance Review
To maintain access, users must complete annual renewals that include:
Continued REB approval or exemption confirmation
CNMDP user renewal
DAC renewal and compliance check
Failure to renew or maintain compliance will result in suspension of access.
Data Storage and Management
Each participant recorded within the Repository is assigned a unique Repository ID code to ensure consistent data traceability and participant confidentiality. Only fully de-identified data are stored in the Registry, except for health card number for individuals who consent for their data to be linked to provincial administrative health databases (this will be stored in a database separate from all other study data). Both automated and manual security measures are in place to ensure that only de-identified participant information is accessible within the Repository.
This platform has been developed in collaboration with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) – Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics (KCNI), based on their Neuroinformatics Platform. As such, the primary data storage will be at CAMH-KCNI with secondary data storage at the Royal. De-identified data will be transferred into the system via secure, encrypted pathways. Data will be held in the platform for a minimum of 10 years.
Repository Team
Rebecca Robillard
Repository Manager
Caitlin Higginson
Coordinator & Repository Data Manager
Advisory Council
Tetyana Kendzerska
Administrative Health Data Specialist
Golnoush Alamian
Data Liaison
Andrée-Ann Baril, Andrew Lim, Arsenio Paez, Caroline Arbour, Céline Bastien, Christophe Grova, Jean-Marc Lina, Mohamad Forouzanfar, Thanh Dang-Vu