A Novel Low-Cost Monitoring System for Sleep Apnea Patients

Abstract

Sleep apnea resulting from obstructions in the upper respiratory tract during sleep is one of the most common sleep disorders that result in poor sleep and a significant degradation of our quality of life. Sleep apnea patients have frequent pauses in breathing during sleeping and very often face snoring problem. Usually, these short lapses cause a person to wake up at irregular intervals reducing their sleep quality, the older patients, however, find it very difficult to cope with such sleep apnea periods. The traditional monitoring and detection system is both expensive and complicated to be used regularly and at home. This study proposes a novel, low-cost monitoring system for sleep apnea patients which comes in the form of a wearable belt incorporating 3 different sensors to collect physiological signals correlated to sleep apnea. Electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, photoplethysmog-raphy (PPG) sensor, and accelerometer are used with a bluetooth sensor so that the obtained data can be easily sent to a computer or mobile application where physicians, nurses, caregivers can monitor the patients without being present all the time. Using the assortment of the physiological signals, the onset of sleep apnea can be easily detected and the concerned people can be alerted instantaneously. The proposed system is affordable and can be used at home very easily.