Estimation of Sleep Quality of Residents in Nursing Homes Using an Internet-Based Automatic Monitoring System

We proposed a completely unconstrained method for long-term monitoring sleep quality of residents in nursing homes using an Internet-based automatic sleep monitoring system, "Umemory". When a resident lies in bed, his/her heart pulsation, respiration, and body movement are sensed by a piezoelectric transducer under a mattress. The corresponding digital signal is sent to database servers via Internet, and further processed in the servers. 1090 days´ data from 13 subjects in 2 nursing homes were obtained by this system for evaluation. Through comparing with records provided by nursing home staff, we found that this system could provide detailed information about the nursing home residents´ sleep quality. Furthermore, the analysis result provided information such as "in-bed" body movement and sleep quality, which was unable to be constantly observed by nursing home staff at all. Therefore, it is concluded that our method may serve as an effective and convenient tool for automatic monitoring nursing home residents´ sleep quality. This system may also lessen the burden of nursing home staff and be used to optimize personal specific healthcare service.