Project

Sleep++

Copyright

Nathan Whitmore

Nathan Whitmore

Sleep++ aims to improve sleep quality by stimulating the brain to enter deep sleep.

Currently, insufficient and poor quality sleep represents a major health burden. Poor sleep is associated with a wide range of diseases,  as well as increased risk of accidents like car crashes. Current approaches to improve sleep in otherwise healthy adults include medication and lifestyle change--but these methods have significant drawbacks that limit their usefulness.

We are testing whether a new method called slow wave entrainment can can improve sleep quality. In this method, sensory stimuli like sounds are played about once per second during deep sleep. These stimuli prompt the brain to produce stronger slow waves, the brainwaves associated with deep and restorative sleep.

Previous experiments in sleep laboratories have demonstrated that slow wave entertainment can improve biological measurements of sleep quality. Based on these results, we are developing software for performing slow-wave entrainment using mobile and wearable devices. We then plan to test whether slow wave entrainment with these devices can improve sleep quality and mitigate the problems caused by poor sleep.

You can now try out Sleep++ on your phone! Just click the button below or go to https://sleepplus.appspot.com/demo