title: Reduction in time-to-sleep through EEG based brain state detection and audio stimulation.
abstract: We developed an EEG- and audio-based sleep sensing and enhancing system, called iSleep (interactive Sleep enhancement apparatus). The system adopts a closed-loop approach which optimizes the audio recording selection based on user's sleep status detected through our online EEG computing algorithm. The iSleep prototype comprises two major parts: 1) a sleeping mask integrated with a single channel EEG electrode and amplifier, a pair of stereo earphones and a microcontroller with wireless circuit for control and data streaming; 2) a mobile app to receive EEG signals for online sleep monitoring and audio playback control. In this study we attempt to validate our hypothesis that appropriate audio stimulation in relation to brain state can induce faster onset of sleep and improve the quality of a nap. We conduct experiments on 28 healthy subjects, each undergoing two nap sessions - one with a quiet background and one with our audio-stimulation. We compare the time-to-sleep in both sessions between two groups of subjects, e.g., fast and slow sleep onset groups. The p-value obtained from Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test is 1.22e-04 for slow onset group, which demonstrates that iSleep can significantly reduce the time-to-sleep for people with difficulty in falling sleep.
authors.lastname: Zhuo Zhang
authors.lastname: Cuntai Guan
authors.lastname: Ti Eu Chan
authors.lastname: Juanhong Yu
authors.lastname: Aung Aung Phyo Wai
authors.lastname: Chuanchu Wang
authors.lastname: Haihong Zhang
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000465:Algorithms; D000669:Amplifiers, Electronic; D001921:Brain; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D012890:Sleep