Monitoring and control of sleep cycles

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 ...

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 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.

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 a day have a higher mortality rate than those that sleep less than 8 hours.

While people typically think they are tired because of insufficient sleep, people may in fact be tired or shortening their lives because of too much sleep.

As indicated above, human sleeping behavior is complex, and a disruption of a normal sleeping pattern (as in jet lag), or an undiagnosed abnormal sleeping pattern, can have significant adverse health and / or performance consequences.

However, these methods do not enable a user to fully optimize and control his or her sleep cycles to improve health and / or performance.

Thus, there is an unmet need in the art for such methods and systems.

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