Monitoring and control of sleep cycles

a technology of sleep cycle and monitoring and control, applied in the field of monitoring and controlling sleep, can solve the problems of people losing some of the ability to regulate their body temperature, not immediately adapting, and groggy and disoriented, and achieve the effect of optimizing and fully controlling the individual sleeping behavior

Inactive Publication Date: 2005-01-20
SUTTON WILLIAM R
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

A system according to an embodiment of the invention includes a monitor for monitoring a user's sleep cycles, a processor which counts the sleep cycles to provide a sleep cycle count and which selects an awakening time according to a decision algorithm including

Problems solved by technology

People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up.
People lose some of the ability to regulate their body temperature during REM, so abnormally hot or cold temperatures in the environment can disrupt this stage of sleep.
The body's level of melatonin normally increases after darkness falls, making people feel drowsy.
When travelers pass from one time zone to another, they suffer from disrupted circadian rhythms, an uncomfortable feeling known as jet lag.
Although insufficient sleep is a common problem, there is also research that shows that people that sleep more than 8 hours

Method used

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  • Monitoring and control of sleep cycles
  • Monitoring and control of sleep cycles
  • Monitoring and control of sleep cycles

Examples

Experimental program
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Effect test

example 1

The user is assumed to be an athlete that has used a system according to an embodiment of the invention for sufficient time to collect useful historical data and who will be competing in an event in a foreign time zone. For the purposes of this example, the athlete is living and training in California for an event in England, and desires to slowly adjust to the new time zone before he travels over seas.

One week before departing to England, the athlete, who ordinarily gets up at 8:00 AM, sets his system up for 8:00 AM London time. The system calculates the time difference to be 8 hours. The system will not attempt to make the full 8 hour adjustment over 7 days, but only a more reasonable three hours adjustment. Otherwise the athlete would be going to bed in daylight hours during the week prior to the event. This would not be practical. Over the next 7 days the system turns on a light at a low level a half hour earlier on each successive morning and slowly ramps up to full intensit...

example 2

For purposes of this example, we assume the athlete of Example 1 has an event scheduled for noon the next day and that the athlete has several preparations (Priority Events) that must be considered to properly prepare for and enhance the day's performance. Furthermore, the athlete desires to NOT be awakened on the day of the event during a critical sleep cycle, before the completion of his optimum personal sleep cycle, or in such a way that does not encourage optimum performance.

First, the athlete desires to be awakened with sufficient time to: 1) Eat breakfast; 2) Use the bathroom and shower; 3) Stretch; 4) Meditate; 5) Watch a motivational tape; 6) Call home and talk to parents; 7) Drive to the event; 8) Meet with coach for a final pep talk; and, 9) Engage in final warm up and mental prep for the event.

The athlete notices that not all of the above activities are absolutely necessary and that it would be acceptable to forgo or reduce some pre event activities in excha...

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Abstract

A system is provided including: a monitor for monitoring a user's sleep cycles; a processor which counts the sleep cycles to provide a sleep cycle count and which selects an awakening time according to a decision algorithm including the sleep cycle count as an input; and an alarm for awakening the user at the awakening time. Use of the sleep cycle count as an input to the decision algorithm advantageously enables a user to more fully control and optimize his or her personal sleeping behavior.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to monitoring and controlling sleep. BACKGROUND During sleep, humans usually pass through five stages or phases of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage 1. For adults, typically almost 50 percent of total sleep time is stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent is REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent is stage 1, 3, and / or 4 sleep. Infants, by contrast, spend about half of their sleep time in REM sleep. Stage 1 sleep is light sleep. A person in stage 1 sleep drifts in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. Eye movement and muscle activity are slow. People awakened from stage 1 sleep often remember fragmented visual images. Many also experience sudden muscle contractions called hypnic myoclonia, often preceded by a sensation of starting to fall. These sudden movements are similar to the “jump” people make when startled. During stage 2 sleep, eye movements stop and ...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): A61M21/00
CPCA61M21/00A61M2205/52A61M2021/0083A61M2021/0027
Inventor SUTTON, WILLIAM R.
Owner SUTTON WILLIAM R
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