SBIR Phase I: In-home Monitoring of Sleep Fragmentation and Micro-Arousals by Characterizing Leg Movements

This SBIR Phase I project uses novel technologies to produce an attractive, affordable and commercial product and service, RestEaZe translating to the home the sleep lab evaluations of restless sleep for millions of adults with insomnia and children with ADHD and RLS. An analysis of significant sleep features that should be evaluated for at-home sleep monitoring indicated that at least these should include total sleep time, brief arousals, wake during sleep, sleep efficiency, periodic leg movements in sleep and sleep position. Moreover these need to be developed and validated for adults as well as children. The analyses indicate that sleep monitoring should be based on leg and not arm movement. RestEaZe, for the first time ever, both phenotypes and also measures the leg movements of sleep (LMS) and using logistic regression and advanced machine learning identifies LMS characteristics that accurately predict these significant sleep measures. RestEaZe translates advanced sleep science from the lab to the home. The user gets an immediate scientifically accurate view of quiet vs. restless sleep and changes in sleep over several nights in relation to user entered sleep behavior. RestEaZe also provides professionally developed interactive guides for improving sleep based on RestEaZe results. The doctor gets advanced movement and sleep analyses with interactive graphic and numeric summaries of the patient's sleep over several days. The analyses will reveal both sleep quality, circadian pattern and PLMS. The PLMS reveal possible medical conditions such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome (RLS), cardiac morbidity and REM behavior disorder. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.