The Development of a System for Sleep Care and Its Applications

This paper describes a new sleep monitoring system for home use. The basic system consists of a wearable physiological sensor and the PC software for analyzing sleep quality from user´s wrist motion and heart rate variability. Different from a conventional sleep monitoring device used in a hospital, the sensor is so small and easy-to-use that a normal person can use it at home. This means that the system is useful not only for a sleep specialist who wants to check his/her patient´s daily sleep pattern, but also is useful for self-care. The concepts of the tele-care system and the real-time control of electric appliances for creating better sleep environment are also mentioned.