Although sleep It is essential for human health, more than 60% of adults experience poor quality of dream. Behaviors like breathe by mouth, the apnea of dream and the snoring They are behind the poor quality of rest and can cause chronic diseases such as diabetes, depression or diseases cardiovascular. This also translates into the loss of between 44 and 54 annual working days, as well as an estimated reduction of 1% of world GDP.
However, now, a group of researchers has developed some ‘pajamas intelligent ‘, comfortable and washable, which allow to control at home disorders such as the apnea of the dream. This reduces the need to use adhesive patches, cumbersome equipment or visits to specialized sleep clinics. To develop this tool, the team led by the University of Cambridge developed printed fabric sensors that can monitor the breathing When detecting small movements in the fur.
“Lack of sleep has a great impact on our physical and mental health, so an adequate monitoring of sleep is vital”
“The lack of sleep has a great impact on our physical and mental health, so an adequate monitoring of sleep is vital,” said Professor Luigi Ochipinti, of the Cambridge Graphene Center, who directed the research. “However, the current reference technique for monitoring of the dreampolysomnography or PSGis expensive, complex and is not suitable for long -term use at home. ”
Domestic devices simpler than PSGsuch as the tests of dream At home, they usually focus on a single condition and are bulky or uncomfortable. On the other hand, portable devices, such as smart watches, can only infer sleep quality and are not effective in precisely monitoring disorders from dream. “We need something that is comfortable and easy to use every night, but that is precise enough to provide significant information about the quality of the dream”He said Eyes.
To develop the pajamas, the researchers were based on a previous work on an intelligent gargant for people with speech disabilities. The team redesigned graphene sensors for breath analysis during sleep and introduced several design improvements to increase sensitivity. “Thanks to the design changes we implement, the sensors can detect different states of dreamignoring the turns in bed, ”he said Occhinpinti. “The greatest sensitivity also means that the intelligent garment does not need to conform to the neck, which would be uncomfortable for many people. While the sensors are in contact with the skin, they provide very precise readings.”
The researchers designed an automatic learning model, called Trawlwhich uses the signals captured by the sensors to identify sleep states, such as nasal breathing, oral respiration, snoring, bruxism, central apnea of sleep (ACS) and obstructive sleep apnea (TO THE). Trawl It is a light AI network that reduces computational complexity to the point of being able to run on portable devices, without the need to connect to computers or servers.
“We reduce the model of IA to the point of obtaining the lowest computational cost with the greatest precision, ”he said Occhinpinti. “In this way, we can integrate the main data processors directly into the sensors.” The new pajamas It was tested in healthy patients and with apnea of the dreamallowing to detect various sleep states with an accuracy of 98.6 %. By applying a special starch process, they improved the durability of the sensors so that they can be washed in a conventional washing machine.
“Dream is essential for health, and reliable sleep monitoring can be key in preventive care”
On the other hand, the most recent version of the pajamas You can also transfer data wirelessly, so sleep data can be sent safely to a smartphone or computer. Now, researchers hope to adapt the sensors to various conditions of health or domestic uses, such as the monitoring of you drinkand have had conversations with different groups of patients. They also work to improve sensors durability for long -term use.
“He dream It is essential for health, and reliable sleep monitoring can be key in preventive care, ”he said Eyes. “Since this garment can be used at home, instead of in a hospital or clinic, it can alert users about changes in their dream, which they can then consult with their doctor. Sleep behaviors, such as nasal or mouth breathing, are not usually detected in a sleep analysis of the NHSbut they can be an indicator of disorders of the dream”, He concludes.
