According to statistics, over 60% of adults experience sleep disturbances. To diagnose the causes, you can visit specialized clinics that will monitor your sleep for one or more nights using various uncomfortable sensors. This is inconvenient and often expensive. For example, the gold standard of sleep monitoring—polysomnography—is only performed in a hospital setting. Smaller home devices, including smartwatches, can only provide general information about sleep quality but are unable to identify problems or illnesses.
"We wanted to create something simple and convenient to use every night," said the authors from the University of Cambridge. As a result, they developed pajamas with miniature graphene sensors embedded in the fabric to analyze breathing during sleep. The AI was trained to accurately detect various sleep states, but to ignore regular tossing and turning from one side to the other and from back to stomach.
Experiments have shown that pajamas can diagnose obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, mouth breathing, brusqueism, and other problems with 99% accuracy.
The latest version of the prototype can already transmit data via Wi-Fi to a smartphone or computer, significantly simplifying diagnostics. Scientists are currently working on enhancing the fabric's properties to make it machine-washable.
This development could bring enormous benefits to patients. For example, sleep apnea is often confused with snoring, so people rarely seek medical help. However, the health consequences of this condition (regular pauses in breathing during sleep) can be devastating.
Apple previously announced plans to integrate a sleep apnea detection sensor into its watch. Late last year, the company announced the availability of a diagnostic test in the US, which will gradually expand to other countries. The quality of this diagnostic test will be available soon.
