SUMMARY This contribution provided comments onmethodological issues related to the auto-mated identification and characterizationof sleep spindles and their intracranialsources, and to the understanding of theirfunctional significance. Specific guide-lines were presented for the computer-based detection and analysis of spindlesand their intracranial sources, as wellas for related experimental and clinicalstudies. AUTHORCONTRIBUTIONS Periklis Y. Ktonas and Errikos-ChaimVentouras contributed to the conceptionanddesignofthework,aswellastodrafting and critically revising it, and toproviding final approval of the versionto be published. They both agree to beaccountable for all aspects of the work. REFERENCES Caporro,M.,Haneef,Z.,Yeh,H.J.,Lenartowicz,A., Buttinelli, C., Parvizi, J., et al. (2012).Functional MRI of sleep spindles and K-complexes. Clin. Neurophysiol . 123, 303–309.doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2011.06.018Carvalho, D. Z., Gerhardt, G. J., Dellagustin, G.,de Santa-Helena, E. L., Lemke, N., Segal, A.Z., et al. (2014). Loss of sleep spindle fre-quency deceleration in Obstructive SleepApnea.