Evaluating task effectiveness based on sleep pattern

• US 20050177031A1
• Filed: 01/11/2005
• Published: 08/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Hursh, Steven Rawlings
• Granted Patent: US 7,207,938 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/16 Devices for psychotechnics using teaching or educational appliances G09B1/00 - G09B7/00; Testing reaction times ; Devices for evaluating the psychological state
• 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: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/30 relating to physical therapies or activities, e.g. physiotherapy, acupressure or exercising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

Systems and methods for evaluating the effectiveness of a person to perform a task based on his/her preceding or predicted sleep pattern are provided. An interface allows a user to use actual sleep data or predicted sleep data to produce predictions of the task effectiveness of a person to perform a particular task. The predictions may be in tabular, graphical, or tabular and graphical format. The interface may also represent the effectiveness of a user based on the actual or predicted sleep data in conjunction with an actual or predicted work schedule or pattern. The results can be correlated to sunlight in the user'"'"'s location, and can also account for changes in the users location (transmeridian shifts), sunlight during the user'"'"'s sleep cycle (shift work), and other schedule modifying events.

Claims

1. In a computer system having a graphical user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of evaluating the effectiveness of a person to perform a task based on a sleep pattern using the interface, comprising the steps of:

(i) receiving sleep pattern data for an individual;

(ii) displaying a schedule based on the sleep schedule data; and

(iii) calculating and displaying a measure of task performance, wherein the measure is based at least in part on the received sleep pattern data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising steps of:

(iv) receiving work schedule data for the individual; and

(v) displaying the measure of task performance in combination with the work schedule.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (iv) comprises reading work schedule data from a file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (i) comprises reading sleep pattern data from a file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (ii) comprises displaying the schedule in graphical format.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising steps of:

(iv) entering a parameter affecting the displayed schedule; and

(v) displaying a second schedule for the individual, wherein the second schedule includes a recalculated measure of task performance responsive to the entered parameter.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein step (iv) comprises entering event information indicating the individual has traveled among time zones.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein step (iv) comprises modifying an existing parameter.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein step (iii) comprises displaying an effectiveness measure across the schedule.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein step (iii) comprises displaying a sleep reservoir balance across said schedule.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein step (iv) comprises modifying a schedule parameter selected from the set of a 24 hour rhythm phase offset, a 12 rhythm phase offset, a relative amplitude of said 12 hour phase offset, a sleep propensity mesor, a sleep propensity amplitude, a maximum sleep accumulation per minute value, a performance rhythm amplitude as a fixed or variable percentage, a sleep reservoir capacity, a feedback amplitude, a sleep inertia constant, a maximum inertia following awakening, a performance use rate, and a relative acrophase.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein step (iii) comprises the steps of:

(a) modeling circadian oscillators for the individual;

(b) calculating the amount of effective sleep in a sleep reservoir for the individual based on the individual'"'"'s sleep and activity pattern; and

(c) calculating the measure of task performance based on the oscillators and the sleep reservoir.

13. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of storing the entered parameter to a file.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the measure of task performance to a file.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein step (i) comprises receiving sleep pattern data as input from a user of the computer system.

16. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 1.

17. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 5.

18. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 6.

19. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 7.

20. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 9.

21. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 10.

22. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 11.

23. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 12.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the measure of task performance comprises calculating a sleep intensity based on a current sleep deficit and based on a sleep propensity.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein sleep propensity is a function of time of day.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of adjusting over time a phase of a circadian rhythm of the individual based on the sleep pattern data,

wherein in step (iii) the measure of task performance is further based on the circadian rhythm.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein adjusting the circadian rhythm is further based on a time zone change.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein adjusting the circadian rhythm is further based on a work schedule of the individual.

29. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 24.

30. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 25.

31. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 26.

32. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 27.

33. A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, perform the method of claim 28.