A miniature home-based sleep monitoring device

Abstract

© 2015 IEEE. Dynamics of sleep, vitally important but commonly overlooked, have been associated with various aspects of physical and mental health. Sleep deprivation not only affects daily activities, causing fatigue, impaired memory, and cognitive dysfunction, but also increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Sleep disruptions generally present as sleep disorders; apnea, insomnia, snoring, sleep walking, and restless legs syndrome are common examples. Diagnosis as well as treatment require one or more sleep studies: polysomnography (PSG), a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), a maintenance of wakefulness test (MWT), or actigraphy. Considered the gold standard, PSG is commonly administered at a specialized sleep laboratory, which usually has a long waiting list due to an increasingly overwhelming demand. PSG is expensive and time consuming, requiring an overnight stay. To make it more practically accessible, an augmented home-based PSG would be of great benefit. We propose a sleep monitoring device to be used at the comfort of home. Setting it apart from commercially available products, this is a miniature unit. It is affordable, highly customizable, and user-friendly. Patients can view their results in real-time on a graphical display that is easy to read and understand. Physicians can utilize an interactive user interface for ease of data access during medical evaluation. Furthermore, the device features an integrated web application, enabling suitable and attractive data visualization.