A New Awakening For Sleep Research

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A New Awakening For Sleep Research

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=44307

The IST project SENSATION is an ambitious project of 46 partners from

20 different countries, addressing sensing of physiological

parameters, core computation, medical and industrial research. The

aim is to take sleep research to a whole new level by developing a

multipurpose sensing platform consisting of 17 micro sensors and two

nano sensors, connected through a local area network.

" The sensors will allow you to sleep at home on, for instance, a

mattress with sensors instead of going to a hospital which is much

more comfortable and the test becomes more precise, " explains Dr

Evangelos Bekiaris, project coordinator. Today, you will have to go

to a hospital sleep lab for 1-2 nights and have your sleep measured

to evaluate your sleep. " These tests are costly and since monitoring

sleep cannot be done in your home environment they are not as

reliable, " says Bekiaris.

The sensors will be integrated into a wide range of materials such as

bed and pillow textiles, wrist straps, seat linings and the frames of

glasses. Wirelessly integrated through a computer network they will

measure your brain activity, heart rate, eye and muscle movements

during your waking and sleeping hours. The data will be collected in

a body area network, wirelessly transferred to a local area network

and then sent to the hospital for analysis, Bekiaris explains. The

sensors can also be used for safe monitoring and early warning of

people while driving or supervising a critical task, like the

operators of nuclear power stations or air traffic controllers,

before they fall asleep and cause an accident.

The project is now halfway through its funding period and is already

showing a lot of tangible results. The first stage of the project

involved data collection, setting up of databases and formulating

recommendations for the development of sensors.

" We have developed something which is truly unique, with two

extensive databases of sleep data, one with data of normal sleep with

350 participants and another one with sleep data of 400 people

monitored while working or driving, crossing the stage between

vigilant to sleep, " says Bekiaris. " About half of these people were

tested in a driving simulator but the other half was tested driving

on highways with double command cars. The tests show a significant

difference in the persons reactions, as the persons in the simulator

were more calm, knowing they were part of a test, whereas the people

on the highways were really fighting sleep. " It shows that when

monitoring people in their daily lives there are significant

differences in result, he continues.

The project, spanning such a vast research area, has the potential

for a strong impact. According to statistics 25 per cent of the

traffic accidents in the UK, or 40 per cent in the US, is related to

driver fatigue. The project estimates that the SENSATION sleep

platform with its sensors could reduce serious road accidents by 30

per cent and industrial accidents by over 15 per cent.

Although one of the main areas is to develop sensors to measure the

waking state of a person, both the collected data from the project

and the final results can prove to be useful for further

research. " Take falling asleep at workplaces as an example, " he

says. " Today you have techniques that might alert you as you fall

asleep, but what we want is a system that will alert the person

already before this happens. In some work environments or while

driving it might already be too late if you have started dozing off. "

The applications are vast. You could monitor aircraft pilots to make

sure they are awake. It could be used to monitor babies and prevent

cot death, or in sleep management, to evaluate your own sleep and

from this plan shift work according to people's biorhythms, Bekiaris

explains.

" We currently have nine sensors ready and plan to present the first

sensors and prototypes at the International conference on 'Monitoring

sleep and sleepiness - from physiology to new sensors' which will be

held in Switzerland 29-30 May 2006, " says Bekiaris.

Real-life tests of the prototypes and the entire sleep platform are

planned to start by the beginning of next year.