Sleep in the cloud: On how to use available heart rate monitors to track sleep and improve quality of life

As the modern society accumulates sleep debt that jeopardizes health, performance and wellbeing, people become increasingly interested in self-assessment. We aim to enable sleep self-evaluation using available Heart Rate (HR) monitors, mobile and cloud technology. Sleep was evaluated using a proprietary ECG-based validated sleep diagnostic software adapted to HR data obtained from HR monitor belts (HRMs) which are widely used to monitor HR during physical activity. Data were transmitted and stored on an iPhone, using a dedicated application. Two wireless communication channels are used for HRMs: (P1) Wearlink and (P2) ANT+. The stored information was uploaded to the cloud and automatically analyzed. The functionality of an automated sleep monitoring and analysis, using HRMs, with either P1 or P2 transmission, iPhone, and cloud based SleepRate software analysis has been checked. HR belts with ANT+ were the most suitable for recording HR during sleep. Millions of people own HRMs to assess their training. Now they can use the same device to evaluate and improve their sleep, thus improving their daytime physical and cognitive performance , wellbeing and overall health.