Estimation of sleep states by using respiration, heart rate, body movement measured by a tactile sensor sheet

Abstract

The number of people requiring nursing care is expected to increase significantly in the future. However, the number of nursing care workers is not keeping pace with this increase. If the sleep state of those requiring nursing care can be easily estimated, it will be effective in reducing the burden on nursing care workers. We have already developed a method to measure respiration, heartbeat, and body movement of a healthy subject using a flexible tactile sensor sheet by frequency analysis of measured body pressure time series data. In this study, we measured those pieces of biological information of hospitalized patients throughout a night. In addition, we confirmed that the measured biological information can be used to estimate the sleep state.