News Medical: Flinders University sleep experts test new mattress sensor

Flinders University sleep experts are becoming embedded in a new trial to help people with their individual sleep disorders - via tests on a new mattress sensor.

The sleep disorder diagnosis and monitoring trial will be conducted using invisible sensor technology, REMi – developed by RMIT University for Melbourne-based R&D company Sleeptite – to investigate its capability as a validation tool for sleep disorders.

Flinders University project lead, Associate Professor Andrew Vakulin, said the research aimed to develop and validate sleep measurement metrics and algorithms using the REMi sensors, and to further enhance their capability to provide informative data.

“Sleep, exercise and healthy eating are essential for a healthy life, and missing out on sleep – including with an untreated sleep disorder – can have serious long and short-term health consequences,” Associate Professor Vakulin says.

Our research aims to prove that the Sleeptite REMi sensors give a reliable measure of sleep quality and sleep disorders, which will ultimately lead to new apps to help consumers improve their sleep health,” Vakulin continued.

The trial was made possible due to funding received from the CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity.

REMi is the result of an Australian Government Cooperative Research Centers – Project (CRC-P) grant, which saw fundamental research taken from RMIT labs and translated into a commercial outcome.

Launched in March, the technology is designed to non-intrusively monitor aged care residents.

Sensors on the surface of a mattress provide real-time insights into residents’ position, posture and sleep health status.

Sleeptite CEO Cameron van den Dungen says the new research harnessed REMi’s potential to provide sleep diagnostic information outside of an aged care setting.

“With a recent report from the Sleep Health Foundation and Deloitte showing 1 in 10 Australians suffer from a sleep disorder, at a national economic cost of $14.4 billion, there has never been a greater need for research in this space,” Mr van den Dungen says.

I am so excited to see further scientific research show how the Sleeptite REMi platform can be used as a sleep diagnostic tool to determine sleep disorders such as sleep apnea,” van den Dungen continued.