JP2009131493A - Sleep inducing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sleep inducing apparatus capable of shortening a time until a person gets to sleep. <P>SOLUTION: This sleep inducing apparatus 1 for inducing sleep in a subject is characterized by including a biomedical sensor 11 for acquiring biological information of the subject, a sleep level determination section 14 determining a sleep depth for indicating the depth of the subject's sleep based on biological information acquired by the biomedical sensor 11, a heat radiation amount acquisition section 15 for acquiring the amount of heat radiation of the subject based on the biological information acquired by the biomedical sensor 11, and a stimulus presentation determination section 16 applying massage stimulus to the subject based on the sleep depth determined by the sleep level determination section 14 and the radiation amount acquired by the radiation amount acquisition section 15. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a hypnotic device that induces sleep of a subject.

  In the case of sleeping at night or when the driver of the vehicle takes a nap, a wakefulness device for inducing sleep early has been developed. For example, in the device described in Patent Document 1, when the room temperature is set to a temperature that a human feels comfortable at the time of awakening, the device begins to apply a physical stimulus, and after about 10 minutes have elapsed, the stimulus amount starts to decrease. After that, it is gradually reduced to zero over 15 minutes. Thereby, promotion of the hypnotic effect is aimed at.

Moreover, in the apparatus described in Patent Document 2, the sleep stage is determined by eye movements in a human closed eye state, and the stimulation level decreases as the sleep stage progresses (that is, the sleepiness deepens). This promotes the sleep-sleeping effect.
JP-A-8-19454 JP-A 63-97174

  In the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the setting contents of the room temperature and the way of applying the stimulus are uniformly defined regardless of the human eye-closed state, arousal state, and sleep state. For this reason, since the state of the human body is not taken into consideration, there is room for further shortening the time until the human sleeps.

  Moreover, in the apparatus described in Patent Document 2, the way of giving a stimulus to a human is based on the sleep stage determined by eye movement. As described above, the method of giving the stimulus based on the sleep stage is considered, but the method of giving the stimulus based on the heat radiation of the human is not taken into consideration, so there is room for shortening the time until the human sleeps. There is.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a wake-up device that can shorten the time until a human sleeps.

  The inventor has intensively studied to solve the above-mentioned problems, and considers how to give stimulation based not only on the depth of human sleep but also on the amount of heat released by humans, thereby reducing the time until a human sleeps. It turned out that it can be made shorter. The present invention has been made based on this finding.

  The awakening device according to the present invention determines a sleep depth for indicating the depth of sleep of a subject based on biometric information acquisition means for acquiring biometric information of the subject and biometric information acquired by the biometric information acquisition means. Based on the means, the heat release amount acquisition means for acquiring the heat release amount of the subject based on the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition means, the sleep depth determined by the determination means, and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition means And a stimulus imparting means for imparting a stimulus to the subject.

  In this wakefulness device, the biological information of the subject is acquired by the biological information acquisition means, the sleep depth of the subject is determined based on the biological information by the determination means, and the heat release amount of the subject is determined based on the biological information by the heat dissipation amount acquisition means. get. Then, in the hypnotic device, a stimulus based on the sleep depth determined by the determination unit and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition unit is applied to the subject by the stimulus applying unit. Here, since the method of giving the stimulus based on not only the sleep depth indicating the depth of sleep of the subject but also the heat radiation amount of the subject is considered, the time until the human sleeps can be further shortened.

  In the above wakefulness device of the present invention, the determination means classifies the sleep depth into four types according to the sleep depth, and the stimulus applying means determines that the sleep depth determined by the determination means is the sleep depth most. It is a shallow type of sleep depth, and the stimulus is continuously applied to the subject until the condition that the amount of heat release acquired by the heat release amount acquisition means starts decreasing, and is given to the subject when the condition is satisfied. It is good also as a structure which suppresses irritation | stimulation.

  In this hypnotic device, the determination unit classifies and determines the sleep depth into four types, the sleep depth determined by the determination unit is the sleep depth of the type with the shallowest sleep depth, and is acquired by the heat dissipation amount acquisition unit The application of the stimulus to the subject is continued until the condition where the released heat release starts to be satisfied, and the stimulus applied to the subject is suppressed when the condition is satisfied. By continuing to give the stimulus to the subject until this condition is satisfied, the blood circulation of the subject is improved and the increase in the heat radiation amount is continued. Here, by suppressing stimulation when this condition is satisfied, unnecessary stimulation to the subject when the amount of heat release starts to decrease and the depth of sleep shifts to the next deepest sleep depth than the current time Since it is suppressed, the depth of sleep can be made deeper smoothly. For this reason, the time until a human sleeps can be shortened.

  In the arousal device of the present invention, the stimulus applying unit may stop applying the stimulus when the above condition is satisfied.

  In this hypnotic device, the stimulus application means stops applying the stimulus when the above condition is satisfied. Here, when this condition is satisfied, by stopping the application of stimulation, unnecessary stimulation to the subject when the depth of sleep shifts to the next deeper type of sleep depth than the current time disappears, so sleep The depth of can be made smoother and deeper. For this reason, the time until a human sleeps can be shortened.

  The present invention can shorten the time until a human sleeps.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate understanding of the description, the same components in the drawings are denoted by the same reference numerals as much as possible, and redundant description will be omitted.

  In the present embodiment, the wakefulness device according to the present invention is applied to a wakefulness device that is mounted on a vehicle and induces a driver (subject) to sleep at an early stage. In the hypnotic device according to the present embodiment, the stimulus to be applied is a massage stimulus. Moreover, below, it demonstrates using the term sleep stage as a term for showing a driver | operator's sleep depth. The term sleep stage is a term indicating the depth of sleep, as is the case with terms such as sleep depth, sleep stage, arousal level, and sleepiness level. The sleep stage can be classified into four stages (that is, four types) according to the depth of sleep, and is expressed as sleep stage 1 to sleep stage 4. The sleep stage 1 is the stage where the depth of sleep is the shallowest, and the sleep stage 4 is the stage where the depth of sleep is the deepest.

  With reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 9, a wakefulness device 1 according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a hypnotic device according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a relationship diagram between the degree of decrease in deep body temperature and the sleep stage. FIG. 3 is a relationship diagram between the sleep stage and the heat radiation amount. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the elapsed time since the eyes were closed and the sleep stage. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the degree of decrease in body temperature and the amount of heat radiation indicating the degree of decrease in body temperature. FIG. 6 is a relationship diagram between the heat radiation amount and the energy amount acting on the living body. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a part of the appearance of the hypnotic device 1 and how to give a massage stimulus. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure performed in the hypnotic device 1. FIG. 9 is a diagram comparing measurement results of sleep onset latency when a massage stimulus is applied by the wakefulness device 1 and when a massage stimulus is not applied.

  The wakefulness device 1 presents a massage stimulus based on the sleep stage of the driver and the amount of heat release, in order to shorten the time until the driver sleeps. In particular, in the hypnotic device 1, while determining the sleep stage in order to determine whether the massage stimulus is disturbing sleep onset, the body heat release is actively promoted by the massage stimulus, so that the body temperature is decreased by releasing heat from the living body. Encourage and ensure prompt sleep. And if the amount of heat radiation begins to fall, the massage stimulus presented to the driver is suppressed in order not to disturb sleep.

  For this purpose, the hypnotic device 1 includes a biological measurement sensor 11 (biological information acquisition unit), an ECU 12, and a stimulus presentation unit 13 (stimulation applying unit). The ECU 12 includes a sleep stage determination unit 14 (determination unit), a heat release amount acquisition unit 15 (heat release amount acquisition unit), and a stimulus presentation determination unit 16 (stimulus application unit).

  Before describing each part in detail, referring to FIGS. 2 to 6, the sleep stage, the amount of heat released, the body temperature closely related to the amount of heat released, and the amount of energy acting on the living body (ie, the intensity of massage stimulation) ) And their mutual relations. As a basic premise, when a human becomes sleepy, the human living body reduces the amount of energy required for these activities in order to reduce the activities of the internal organs and muscle system, and remains in the living body. Try to release the amount of heat from the body to the outside. Accordingly, the amount of heat release increases in proportion to the degree of decrease in body temperature, that is, the temperature at which heat is released.

  First, as shown in FIG. 2, as the degree of decrease in the deep body temperature of the living body increases, the sleep stage (that is, drowsiness) suddenly increases at the beginning of the decrease, and then gradually draws a gentle curve, and then decreases. No matter how large the degree, the sleep stage is constant (sleep stage 2). That is, since the living body is stabilized at the stage where the sleep becomes deeper than the sleep stage 2 where the sleep is standing, the deep body temperature is kept constant. The body temperature regulation mechanism releases heat as much as the deep body temperature decreases, and the body temperature rises on the surface of the living body during sleep onset by the amount of heat release. This can be realized, for example, because the body of an infant who has become sleepy is warm. From the above relationship, it can be said that the sleep stage rapidly increases at the start of the decrease in the deep body temperature.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the amount of heat release increases rapidly before and after the sleepy state changes to the sleep stage 1 state, and when the maximum heat release amount indicated by the peak point P is reached, the heat release amount starts to decrease. And before and after going into the sleep stage 2, the amount of heat release decreases rapidly, and when entering the sleep stage 3, the heat release becomes almost zero. It is considered that the heat release for lowering the deep body temperature becomes the maximum amount at the sleep stage 1, and after the sleep stage 2, the heat release amount decreases monotonously in order to stabilize the living body. For this reason, it can be said that it is effective to give stimulation massage in order to promote blood circulation on the surface of the living body and promote a decrease in body temperature in the living body until the amount of heat release reaches the peak point P. On the other hand, immediately after the heat dissipation amount reaches the maximum heat dissipation amount, that is, when the heat dissipation amount starts to decrease, blood circulation promotion on the surface of the living body is not necessary, and therefore stimulation stimulation can be suppressed (preferably stopped). It can be said that it is effective.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the time from when the driver awakes from sleepiness and closes his eyes to start presenting massage stimulation and is in the sleep stage 1 state and the amount of heat released begins to decrease. Is given as massage stimulation presentation time T, and massage stimulation is applied until this time T elapses. After this time T elapses, stimulation massage is preferably suppressed (preferably stopped). By doing in this way, until it will be in the state of sleep stage 2, the depth of sleep will become deeply proportional to elapsed time. That is, the driver's quick sleep is promoted by the application of the massage stimulus before the massage stimulus presentation time T elapses and the suppression of the massage stimulus after the massage stimulus presentation time T elapses. Note that as the sleep becomes deeper, the driver is less likely to feel external stimuli such as massage stimuli.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 5, there is a substantially proportional relationship between the body temperature decrease degree and the heat radiation amount of the living body. That is, it can be said that heat is radiated as much as the body temperature decreases.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 6, there is a substantially proportional relationship between the amount of heat released and the amount of energy acting on the living body (that is, the intensity of massage stimulation). That is, it can be said that the blood circulation on the surface of the living body is improved and the heat is radiated as much as the massage stimulus is applied. From this relationship, the amount of energy for promoting heat dissipation (that is, the intensity of massage stimulation) is calculated.

  Each part will be specifically described below.

  The biometric sensor 11 is a sensor that acquires the driver's biometric information necessary to determine the driver's sleep stage and to acquire the driver's heat dissipation amount. The biometric sensor 11 outputs biometric information acquired by measurement to each of the sleep stage determination unit 14 and the heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15. The biometric sensor 11 includes, for example, an electroencephalogram sensor attached to the headrest, a heart rate sensor and a respiration sensor attached to the entire surface of the seat, a thermometer attached to the steering, a skin potential sensor, and an electromyogram sensor, A thermography attached around the driver's seat, an eye movement sensor attached in the vicinity of the rearview mirror, and the like.

  The sleep stage determination unit 14 is a part that determines the stage of the driver's sleep stage based on the biometric information acquired by the biometric sensor 11. The biological information used for this determination is, for example, an electroencephalogram acquired by the electroencephalogram sensor (the deep body temperature may be used, but it is preferable to use an electroencephalogram as a noninvasive measurement). As described above, the sleep stages can be classified into four stages according to the depth of sleep, and are expressed as sleep stage 1 to sleep stage 4, respectively. The sleep stage determination unit 14 outputs the result of determining which stage is in the stimulus presentation determination unit 16.

  The heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15 is a part that acquires information related to the heat dissipation amount of the driver based on various biological information acquired by the biological measurement sensor 11. The heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15 acquires information related to the heat dissipation amount based on biological information acquired by a thermometer or thermography, for example. The heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15 outputs information about the acquired heat dissipation amount to the stimulus presentation determination unit 16.

  The stimulus presentation determination unit 16 is a part that determines how to give the massage stimulus to the driver based on the sleep stage determined by the sleep stage determination unit 14 and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition unit 15. . More specifically, the stimulus presentation determination unit 16 first determines that the driver starts to apply the massage stimulus after the driver drowsed and closes his eyes, and outputs the determination to the stimulus presentation unit 13. Then, until the sleep stage determination unit 14 determines that the sleep stage 1 is satisfied, and the condition that the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition unit 15 starts to decrease is satisfied, the stimulus presentation determination unit 16 performs massage stimulation for the driver. It is determined to continue the application, and the determination is output to the stimulus presenting unit 13.

  In addition, when this condition is satisfied, the stimulation presentation determination unit 16 determines to suppress (preferably stop) the massage stimulation to be given to the driver, and outputs the determination to the stimulation presentation unit 13. In order to suppress the massage stimulation, as shown in FIG. 7, the stimulation cycle is changed by increasing the massage cycle t, or the stimulation presentation site is changed to a site where the effect of the massage stimulation is weak (for example, In addition to weakening the strength at the back and increasing the strength at the waist). The stimulus presentation determination unit 16 incorporates a program that performs the above output.

  The stimulus presentation unit 13 provides massage stimulation to the driver according to the method of giving massage stimulation determined by the stimulus presentation determination unit 16. The stimulation presentation unit 13 is, for example, a roller 131 that performs massage by continuously applying pressure to the driver's back skeletal muscle as shown in FIG. 7 or an air bag that is mounted on an automobile and can apply the pressure. Etc. The stimulus presenting unit 13 is not particularly limited as long as it stimulates the driver's body temperature to be increased by stimulation, and may be, for example, thermal stimulation or acupoint stimulation.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 7, an example of a part of the appearance of the hypnotic device 1 and how to give a massage stimulus will be described. The roller 131 as an example of the stimulus presenting unit 13 performs massage by applying pressure while moving up and down from the driver's waist to the back. During the massage stimulation presentation time T described above, one reciprocal movement of the roller 131 is performed once to several times. After the time T has elapsed, the stimulation massage is suppressed (stopped here).

  Next, with reference to FIG. 8, a processing procedure performed in the wakefulness device 1 after the driver awakes from drowsiness and closes his eyes will be described. First, in the first step S01, a massage stimulus is presented to the driver by the stimulus presentation unit 13. Next, in step S02, the biometric information of the driver is acquired by the biometric sensor 11. At this time, the heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15 further acquires the heat dissipation amount based on the biological information. Next, in step S <b> 03, based on the biological information acquired by the biological measurement sensor 11, the sleep stage determination unit 14 determines which stage the driver has in the sleep stage.

  In step S04, the stimulus presentation determination unit 16 determines whether the determined sleep stage is the sleep stage 1. Here, when it is determined that the determined sleep stage is not the sleep stage 1, the process returns to step S01. On the other hand, when it is determined that the determined sleep stage is the sleep stage 1, the process proceeds to step S05 described later.

  In step S05, the stimulus presentation determination unit 16 determines whether or not the heat dissipation amount acquired by the heat dissipation amount acquisition unit 15 has started to decrease. Here, when it is determined that the heat release amount has not started to decrease, the process returns to step S01. On the other hand, when it is determined that the heat release amount has started to decrease, the process proceeds to step S06 described below.

  In step S <b> 06, it is determined by the stimulus presentation determination unit 16 to suppress (here, end) the massage stimulus to be given to the driver, and the determination is output to the stimulus presentation unit 13. Then, the stimulus presentation unit 13 suppresses (here, ends) the massage stimulus.

  Next, referring to FIG. 9, the comparison of the measurement results of the sleep onset latency in the case where the massage stimulation by the wakefulness device 1 is applied (a) and the case where the massage stimulation is not applied (b). explain. In the case where the massage stimulus was not applied (b), the time from when the human was in the closed eye state until the human began to sleep (that is, the sleep stage 2), that is, the sleep onset latency was about 6 to 7 minutes. On the other hand, the massage stimulation (that is, the massage method that suppresses the massage stimulation when it is determined that the sleep stage 1 is determined and the heat radiation amount starts to decrease) by the hypnotic device 1 is applied. In case (a), the sleep latency was less than 5 minutes. As described above, as a result of applying the massage stimulation by the wakefulness device 1, it was possible to shorten the time until the human sleeps.

  Subsequently, the function and effect of the present embodiment will be described. According to the present embodiment, the biological measurement sensor 11 acquires the driver's biological information, the sleep stage determination unit 14 determines the driver's sleep depth based on the biological information, and the heat release amount acquisition unit 15 determines the living body. The amount of heat released by the driver is acquired based on the information. Then, the stimulation presentation unit 13 gives a massage stimulus based on the sleep stage determined by the sleep stage determination unit 14 and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition unit 15 to the driver.

  Here, since the state of each driver's living body is considered rather than how to give a uniform massage stimulus regardless of the driver's sleep stage, not only the driver's sleep stage but also the driver's sleep stage is considered. Since the method of giving massage stimulation based on the amount of heat release is considered, the time until the driver sleeps can be further shortened. Moreover, since massage stimulation is given based on the acquired driver's biological information, it is not necessary to input a lot of data in advance.

  Further, in the hypnotic device 1, the sleep stage determination unit 14 classifies and determines the sleep stage into four types, the determined sleep stage is the sleep stage 1, and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition unit 15 is The massage stimulus is continuously applied to the driver until the condition for starting to decrease is satisfied. Moreover, when the said conditions are satisfy | filled, the massage stimulus provided to a driver | operator is suppressed. In this way, by continuing to apply the massage stimulus to the driver until the above condition is satisfied, the blood circulation of the driver is improved, the increase in the heat radiation amount is continued, and deep sleep is promoted. Here, when the above condition is satisfied, the living body itself tends to decrease the deep body temperature, so by suppressing the massage stimulus, the heat release amount starts to decrease and the driver when moving to the sleep stage 2 Since unnecessary stimuli that inhibit sleep are suppressed, the depth of sleep can be smoothly increased. For this reason, time until a driver | operator sleeps can be shortened.

  Further, in the hypnotic device 1, the stimulus presentation unit 13 stops applying the massage stimulus when the above condition is satisfied. Here, by stopping applying the massage stimulus when this condition is satisfied, unnecessary massage stimulation for the driver when shifting to the sleep stage 2 is eliminated, so that the depth of sleep is more smoothly deepened. be able to. For this reason, time until a driver | operator sleeps can be shortened.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the energy that acts on the living body necessary for falling asleep from the surface temperature and the deep body temperature acquired by the biometric sensor 11, the driver's normal character heat release amount (that is, the basal metabolic rate), and the body temperature lowering degree that induces sleep. The amount (that is, the intensity of the massage stimulus) may be calculated, and a massage stimulus corresponding to the amount of energy obtained by the calculation may be presented to the driver. Moreover, you may give a thermal stimulus simultaneously with the presentation of a massage stimulus, and you may suppress this thermal stimulus simultaneously with suppressing the presentation of a massage stimulus.

  In addition to the vehicle such as an automobile, a fire truck or a patrol car, the wake-up device 1 is not particularly limited as long as it can be mounted on a device using a seat, a bed, a chair, or the like. It may be mounted on.

It is a block diagram of a slumber device. It is a related figure of the fall degree of deep body temperature, and a sleep stage. It is a related figure of a sleep stage and the heat dissipation. It is a related figure of the elapsed time after closing eyes and a sleep stage. It is a related figure of a body temperature fall degree and heat dissipation. It is a related figure of the amount of heat dissipation and the energy amount which acts on a biological body. It is a figure which shows the example of the one part external appearance of a hypnotic device, and how to give a massage stimulus. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence performed in a nap apparatus. It is the figure which compared the measurement result at the time of falling asleep with the case where the massage stimulus by a hypnosis device is provided, and the case where a massage stimulus is not provided.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Hypnosis device, 11 ... Living body measurement sensor, 12 ... ECU, 13 ... Stimulus presentation part, 14 ... Sleep stage determination part, 15 ... Heat release amount acquisition part, 16 ... Stimulus presentation determination part, 131 ... Roller, P ... Peak point .

Claims (3)

Biometric information acquisition means for acquiring biometric information of the subject;
Determination means for determining a sleep depth for indicating the depth of sleep of the subject based on the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition means;
Based on the biological information acquired by the biological information acquisition means, a heat dissipation amount acquisition means for acquiring the heat dissipation amount of the subject,
Stimulus applying means for applying a stimulus to the subject based on the sleep depth determined by the determining means and the heat dissipation amount acquired by the heat dissipation amount acquiring means;
A hypnotic device comprising: The determining means determines the sleep depth by classifying the sleep depth into four types according to the depth of sleep,
The stimulus applying means satisfies the condition that the sleep depth determined by the determination means is the sleep depth of the type with the shallowest sleep depth, and the heat release amount acquired by the heat release amount acquisition means starts to decrease. And continuing to give the stimulus to the subject until the condition is satisfied, suppressing the stimulus to be given to the subject when the condition is satisfied,
The hypnotic device according to claim 1. The stimulus applying means stops applying the stimulus when the condition is satisfied;
The hypnotic device according to claim 2.

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