Apparatus for and method of biotic sleep state determining

• US 7,608,046 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2007
• Issued: 10/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: TDK Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Takuji, Ouchi, Kazushige, Kameyama, Kenichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nasser; Robert L
• Application Number:
  US11/866,160
• Publication Number:
  US 20080027331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 756 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 600/500
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02438 with portable devices, e.g. worn by the patient
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4035 Evaluating the autonomic nervous system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4809 Sleep detection, i.e. determining whether a subject is asleep or not
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4812 Detecting sleep stages or cycles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/681 Wristwatch-type devices
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6892 Mats
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7239 using differentiation including higher order derivatives

Abstract

A biotic sleep state determining apparatus that determines a sleep state of a subject based on a series of pulse interval data that indicate a time interval of one cycle of a pulse wave of the subject, and on body movement data that indicates a body movement of the subject, the apparatus includes a body movement determining unit that determines that the body movement occurs if a fluctuation amount of the body movement data is greater than a first predetermined threshold, a pulse interval data processor that processes the series of pulse interval data after removing pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data from the series of pulse interval data, if the body movement determining unit determines that the body movement occurs, and a sleep state determining unit that determines the sleep state based on autonomic nerve indexes acquired from the series of pulse interval data processed by the pulse interval data processor.

Claims

1. A biotic sleep state determining apparatus that determines a sleep state of a subject based on a series of pulse interval data that indicate a time interval of one cycle of a pulse wave of the subject, and on body movement data that indicates a body movement of the subject, the apparatus comprising:

a body movement determining unit configured to determine that the body movement occurs if a fluctuation amount of the body movement data is greater than a first predetermined threshold;

a pulse interval data processor that processes the series of pulse interval data, after removing pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data from the series of pulse interval data, if the body movement determining unit determines that the body movement occurs, and thereafter processes the series of pulse interval data other than the removed pulse interval data;

a sleep state determining unit configured to determine the sleep state based on autonomic nerve indexes acquired from the series of pulse interval data processed by the pulse interval data processor;

an awakening determining unit configured to determine that the body movement occurs during awakening if an occurrence frequency of the body movement determined by the body movement determining unit is equal to or greater than a second predetermined threshold, and to determine that the body movement occurs during sleep if the occurrence frequency of the body movement is smaller than the second predetermined threshold, wherein the pulse interval data processor that processes the series of pulse interval data after removing the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data, determined as the body movement during sleep from the series of pulse interval data, if the awakening determining unit determines that the body movement occurs during sleep;

an abnormality data remover that removes the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement by the awakening determining unit from the series of pulse interval data, if the awakening determining unit determines that the body movement occurs, and the pulse interval data processor that processes the series of pulse interval data after the abnormality data remover removes the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement from the series of pulse interval data;

a pulse interval data interpolating unit configured to interpolate the series of pulse interval data, from which the abnormality data remover removes the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement, wherein the pulse interval data processor processes the series of pulse interval data temporally equidistant based on the series of pulse interval data interpolated by the pulse interval data interpolating unit;

a body movement measuring unit configured to measure acceleration data in three-axis directions as the body movement data; and

a body movement sampling data processor that differentiates the acceleration data in the three-axis directions measured by the body movement measuring unit by time, that obtains differential coefficients of the acceleration data in the three-axis directions, and that calculates a fluctuation amount of the body movement data, the fluctuation amount of the body movement data being a square root of a sum of squares of the differential coefficients of the acceleration data in the three-axis directions, wherein the body movement determining unit is configured to determine that the body movement occurs if the fluctuation amount of the body movement data calculated by the body movement sampling data processor is greater than the first predetermined threshold.

2. A biotic sleep state determining method of determining a sleep state of a subject based on a series of pulse interval data that indicate a time interval of one cycle of a pulse wave of the subject, and on body movement data that indicates a body movement of the subject, the method comprising:

determining that the body movement occurs if a fluctuation amount of the body movement data is greater than a first predetermined threshold;

processing the series of pulse interval data after removing pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data from the series of pulse interval data, if the body movement occurs;

determining the sleep state based on autonomic nerve indexes acquired from the series of pulse interval data processed;

determining that the body movement occurs during awakening if an occurrence frequency of the body movement determined is equal to or greater than a second predetermined threshold, and determining that the body movement occurs during sleep if the occurrence frequency of the body movement is smaller than the second predetermined threshold, wherein the processing includes processing the series of pulse interval data after removing the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement during sleep from the series of pulse interval data, if the body movement occurs during sleep;

removing the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement from the series of pulse interval data, if the body movement occurs, and the series of pulse interval data is processed after removing the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement from the series of pulse interval data; and

interpolating the series of pulse interval data, from which the pulse interval data measured in parallel with the body movement data determined as the body movement is removed, wherein the processing includes processing the series of pulse interval data temporally equidistant based on the series of pulse interval data interpolated.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:

converting the series of pulse interval data interpolated into a frequency spectrum distribution, and acquiring autonomic nerve indexes from a plurality of power spectra of the series of pulse interval data converted into the frequency spectrum distribution, wherein the determining includes determining the sleep state based on the autonomic nerve indexes acquired.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the determining includes determining that the subject is in a deep sleep state if LF/HF is smaller than a first determination threshold and HF is greater than a second determination threshold, determining that the subject is in a rapid eye movement REM sleep state if the LF/HF is grater than a third determination threshold, the HF is smaller than a fourth determination threshold, and a sum of standard derivatives of the LF and the HF is greater than a fifth determination threshold, and otherwise determining that the subject is in a light sleep state, in which the LF is a power spectrum in a low-frequency region and the HF is a power spectrum in a high-frequency region among the power spectra.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

measuring a time, wherein the determining includes changing the first to the fifth determination thresholds in consideration of an influence of a circadian rhythm of the subject according to the time measured.