Technologies in the assessments of sleep and wakefulness

Our research investigates the potential of an impulse radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) radar as tool for contact-free objective sleep assessment and monitoring. The radar can be placed on a nightstand or permanently embedded in the ceiling of a hospital room, and is capable of detecting a large range of movements from a person in a room without requiring them to wear equipment on their body; from the big movements of limbs to the very small motions induced by respiration.

‍

We have installed radars in 40 hospital rooms at the acute psychiatric ward at St. Olavs Hospital. We are working on methods to interpret this radar data in a clinically useful way, and comparing the results to commonly used objective measures like polysomnography (PSG) and actigraphy.

‍

Contact-free sleep monitoring could be used to provide information to aid diagnosis and clinical decision-making as well as important feedback to the patients, without the downsides related to on-body sensors or staff observation.

Done in real-time, it could also be used to provide hospital night staff with information about the patients’ current sleep-wake state, e.g. as displayed on monitors in the staff rooms or sent to hand-held devices. In turn this could improve patient safety, reduce the number of nocturnal awakenings due to disturbance from night staff, and lead to more efficient use of limited staff resources at night.

Articles on the project

1. Distinguishing sleep from wake with a radar sensor: a contact-free real-time sleep monitor
2. Contact-free radar recordings of body movement can reflect ultradian dynamics of sleep
3. Søvn 1. utgave 2019

‍