JP2005034402A - Biorhythm evaluating device and biorhythm evaluating method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a biorhythm evaluating device and a biorhythm evaluating method by which the evaluation of a biorhythm, being one of biological states which conventionally accompany the difficulty in the measurement at an actual living scene, can easily be performed by paying attention to an action measurement wherein the effect of an external turbulence is comparatively small, and of which the invasive property is low at the time of the measurement. <P>SOLUTION: A posture detecting means for detecting the posture of a human body from the gradient of the body axis, a human body activity amount detecting means for detecting the activity amount of the human body, a time counting means for measuring time, and a sleep evaluating means which evaluates the biorhythm based on the variation with time of the posture and the activity amount of the human body are provided. Thus, the biorhythm device for which the wearing and the operation of the sensors to the human body can comparatively easily be performed can be realized. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a biological rhythm evaluation apparatus and a biological rhythm evaluation method for discriminating abnormalities in living behavior and biological rhythm disturbances using output data of a sensor noninvasively attached to the body.

As a biological rhythm evaluation apparatus for discriminating abnormalities in living behavior and disturbance of biological rhythm, for example, an apparatus that uses a sensor that measures a human electrocardiogram to evaluate biological rhythm is disclosed (for example, a patent) Reference 1). Moreover, an apparatus for evaluating a biological rhythm from a physiological signal of a human body is shown (for example, see Patent Document 2).
JP-A-6-217946 JP-A-5-3877

  However, when using a sensor that detects physiological signals as in the prior art, for example, even if non-invasiveness is sought, for example, cardiac potential is not There are many very serious disturbance factors such as environmental factors such as light, illness, disability, fatigue, stressor, activity level, posture, and gender. It is one of. In addition, due to the diversity of these disturbance factors, the mounting method and operation method of sensors necessary for detection are severely restricted, which is an obstacle to actual living behavior.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and the object of the present invention is to focus on behavior measurement with a relatively small influence of disturbance and low invasiveness in measurement. To provide a biological rhythm evaluation apparatus and a biological rhythm evaluation method capable of simply evaluating a biological rhythm that is one of physiological states that are difficult to measure.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention includes posture detection means for detecting the posture of the human body from the inclination of the body axis, and human activity amount detection for detecting the activity amount of the human body. Means, time measuring means for measuring time, sleep evaluation means for evaluating sleep behavior based on changes in human body posture and activity, and notifying means for notifying the user of biological rhythm evaluation. And

  The ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus of the second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the sleep evaluation means refers to the bedtime and the wake-up time in addition to the sleep time.

  The ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention includes an acceleration sensor that can detect the inclination of the body axis and the amount of human activity with a single sensor in order to realize a simple and minimally invasive biological rhythm evaluation apparatus. It is characterized by that.

  The ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a phase difference of a biological rhythm is detected from a bedtime and a wake-up time in the evaluation of a phase displacement that is a biological rhythm index.

  The ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus of 5th this invention is provided with the alerting | reporting means which has a function which displays the evaluation result of a sleep evaluation means, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  The biological rhythm evaluation method of the present invention includes a posture detection step for detecting the posture of the human body from the inclination of the body axis, a human activity amount detection step for detecting the amount of activity of the human body, and a temporal change of the posture and activity amount of the human body. And a sleep evaluation step for evaluating sleep behavior based on the above.

  The recording medium of the present invention stores a program for causing a computer to execute all or a part of the functions of the respective means.

  As described above, the biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to the present invention includes posture detection means for detecting the posture of the human body from the inclination of the body axis, human activity amount detection means for detecting the amount of activity of the human body, and posture of the human body. And a sleep evaluation means for evaluating the biological rhythm based on the amount of activity and a notification means for notifying the user of the evaluation of the biological rhythm, so that the biological rhythm apparatus can relatively easily attach and operate the sensor to the human body. Can be realized.

  Some human actions are primarily aimed at reducing the physiological burden of humans. For example, in an environment such as hot midsummer, water intake, movement to the shade, use of air conditioning, etc. can be mentioned. It is clear that these behaviors are closely related to physiological conditions and desires. In addition, there is less dependence on the external environment surrounding the human body, and sleep is one of the actions with the strongest physiological meaning.

  Sleep is known to be closely related to circadian rhythm, which is a reflection of physiological conditions such as melatonin rhythm. In addition, sleep can be regarded as an action adapted to physiological needs such as fatigue recovery and circadian rhythm if the sleep time, which is the duration of the sleep, is long and the occurrence time is constant. However, regardless of the length of sleep time, if the time of occurrence is indefinite, it can be said that it does not meet the physiological needs of circadian rhythm. The present invention evaluates the biological rhythm by paying attention to the indefiniteness of the occurrence time of sleep.

  Needless to say, the sleep occurrence time is defined by the bedtime and the wake-up time. Here, since actions such as going to bed and getting up are voluntary actions, their occurrence time can reflect social needs in addition to physiological needs. However, there are many cases where social needs are fixed, such as school hours, working hours, and TV broadcast hours, and it can be said that physiological needs are easily reflected in the indefiniteness of bedtime and wake-up time.

  Based on the above knowledge, the present invention focuses on the indefiniteness of the occurrence time as described above and evaluates the biological rhythm.

  Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given based on an example of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to the present embodiment, and posture detection means 1 that is attached to the trunk of the human body and detects the supine position from the inclination angle of the trunk, and the body that is attached to the human body. Human activity amount detection means 2 for detecting the exercise intensity of the trunk, information storage means 3 for storing and accumulating information output from the posture detection means 1 and the human activity amount detection means 2, and the information storage means 3 Time measuring means 4 for outputting time, sleep time detecting means 5 for detecting sleep time from posture information, activity amount information and time information accumulated in the information storage means 4, and wake-up time detecting means 6 for detecting wake-up time And bedtime detection means 7 for detecting bedtime, sleep evaluation means 8 and notification means 9.

  Here, the posture detection means 1 includes a uniaxial acceleration sensor, and detects the supine position from an angle formed by the body axis of the human body wearing the posture detection means 1 and the vertical direction. The posture detection means 1 in the present embodiment outputs the case where the body axis is tilted by 70 ° or more with respect to the vertical direction to the information storage means 3 as the lying position and the other cases as the non- lying position. The posture detection means 1 also performs its own measurement control, and in the present embodiment, performs a detection operation in units of one second and outputs a determination result to the information storage means 3.

  The human body activity amount detecting means 2 includes a uniaxial acceleration sensor, detects a human motion as an acceleration, and information on the determination result of two levels of activity “low activity” and “high activity”. Output to storage means 3. The human body activity amount detection means 2 also performs its own measurement control, and in the present embodiment, performs a detection operation in units of one second and outputs a determination result to the information storage means 3.

  The information storage means 3 receives the output from the posture detection means 1, the human body activity amount detection means 2, and the time measuring means 4, and receives the output from the posture detection means 1 and the human body activity amount detection means 2. Time information is added to the output of and stored and stored.

  The sleep time detection means 5 determines the sleep time zone from the posture information and the activity level information given the time information in the information storage means 3 at a predetermined time, and outputs the sleep time to the information storage means 3. The sleep time zone is determined by the time zone corresponding to the output from the posture detection means 1 being prone and the output from the activity amount detection means 2 being “low activity”. It is characterized by a belt. The bedtime detection means 7 detects the time that is the starting point of the sleep time zone as the bedtime, and outputs the bedtime to the information storage means 3. The wake-up time detection means 6 detects the time that is the end point of the sleep time as the wake-up time, and outputs it to the information storage means 3. At this time, the information storage means 3 stores the bedtime and the wake-up time and the sleep time as a relative relationship between them as a series of sleep behaviors as one array.

  Next, the sleep evaluation means 8 reads an array (Ai, Bi, Ci) composed of sleep time, bedtime, and wake-up time from the information storage means 3 until a predetermined number of arrays (N) is reached, and sleep time The sleep rhythm is evaluated based on the relationship between the wake-up time and the bedtime.

  Then, the sleep evaluation unit 8 outputs the determination result of the evaluation method to the notification unit 9.

  The notification means 9 has a function of receiving the output from the sleep evaluation means 8 and notifying the user of the result.

  FIG. 2 shows the correspondence between the actual life behavior on a certain day when using the ecological rhythm evaluation apparatus of the present embodiment, the posture output, the activity output, and the sleep time zone determination result by the sleep time detection means 5. It is an example to show. The graph is composed of upper, middle, and lower graphs. The upper graph is the result of posture output, the middle graph is the result of activity output, and the lower graph is the result of visual recording of actual living activities. The horizontal axis of each graph shows time, and the upper and middle graphs show the transition of each output over 24 hours.

  The frame shown on the time axis of the activity output in the middle stage shows the sleep time zone determined as sleep by the sleep time detection means 5.

  In the recording of actual living activities in the lower row, the vertical axis indicates the living activities that were recorded. In the graph, only a section having no plot existing between going out and returning home is a section in which no action is recorded as a series of going out actions.

  FIG. 3 shows a sleep rhythm evaluation method using the life rhythm evaluation apparatus of the present embodiment. The sleep evaluation means 8 reaches the predetermined number of arrangements (N) from the information storage means 3 with the start of operation (START), which is composed of sleep time (A), bedtime (B), and wake-up time (C). Read until. Next, the time zone where each appears for the bedtime array (Bi) and the bedtime array (Ci) is identified as the appearance range (Vb, Vc), and the bedtime array (Bi) appearance range (Vb) The appearance range (Vc) of the wake-up time sequence (Ci) is compared in size. At this time, the appearance range (Vb) of the bedtime array (Bi) and the appearance range (Vc) of the bedtime array (Ci) are the maximum of the bedtime array (Bi) and the bedtime array (Ci), respectively. It may be the difference between the value and the minimum value, or the variance or deviation. In this embodiment, the difference between the former maximum value and the minimum value is used. Next, based on the size comparison of the appearance range (Vb) of the bedtime arrangement (Bi) and the appearance range (Vc) of the arrangement of the wakeup time (Ci), the arrangement of the bedtime (Bi), the arrangement of the wakeup time ( Of Ci), the wider appearance range is set as the representative time array (Vi), and the appearance range is set as the representative value (V). Next, the representative value (V) is compared with a predetermined range (S), and if the representative value (V) is equal to or smaller than the predetermined range (S), a regular life rhythm determination ("Normal") is output. When the representative value (V) is larger than the predetermined range (S), it is regarded as an irregular life rhythm, and the process proceeds to the next step. The predetermined range (S) is a standard time during which human sleep behavior is expressed. In the present embodiment, the predetermined range (S) is 8 hours. In the flow when the representative value (V) is larger than the predetermined range (S), first, the maximum value is searched for the sleep time array (Ai), and the maximum value is set to Ax. In the next step, the representative time (Vx) having the same argument as the maximum value (Ax) is specified from the representative time array (Vi). In the next step, a phase difference (T) as a time difference between the representative time (Vx) and the reference time is calculated. The reference time at this time is set as a regular sleeping time or wake-up time, which is general for health, as human sleeping behavior. In the next step, “Abnormal” is output as a determination of an abnormal life rhythm, and a sleep rhythm shift is output as a phase difference, and the series of flows is terminated.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the representative time at the time of maximum sleep time (Ax) is compared with the reference time, and biological rhythm abnormality determination is performed. In the irregular sleep pattern, when the wake-up time is distributed between (Vi =) 0: 00-24: 00 as shown in FIG. 5, the average value or standard deviation of (Vi) and the reference time This is because there is a lack of accuracy in determining abnormalities in life rhythms.

  Therefore, the comparison between (Vx) and the reference time is done by comparing the wake-up time or bedtime when the sleep of the person with abnormal sleep and the person with normal sleep is most stable (sleep time is long). However, it is possible to detect abnormal abnormalities of biological rhythm for humans with high irregularity.

  As described above, the present invention makes it possible to perform biological rhythm determination with little determination error due to the external environment by determining normality / abnormality of biological rhythm based on the amount of shift in sleeping time or wake-up time in sleep behavior. .

  Further, as described above, by having at least an acceleration sensor and a time measuring means, the sleep behavior can be detected and evaluated, and a simple and non-invasive biological rhythm can be easily evaluated.

  FIG. 4 is a record relating to the wake-up time and bedtime of a male university student who has an irregular life using the biological rhythm evaluation apparatus of the present embodiment over 18 days. It is a double plot in which the horizontal axis represents the number of days recorded and the vertical axis represents time. “Black square” indicates bedtime, “□” indicates wake up, and the sleep time is from the bedtime until wake up. In the male college student, the dispersion of bedtime and wake-up time exceeds 8 hours, indicating that their occurrence is not regular. FIG. 5 shows the correspondence between the sleep time and the wake-up time detected according to the flow shown in FIG. 3 for the sleep behavior. The vertical axis is the sleep time, and the horizontal axis is the wake-up time that constitutes each sleep time. “●” is for the male university student shown in FIG. “□” is from another student and indicates a standard sleep rhythm. The average time at which “□” occurs is taken as the reference time, and the time difference from the maximum value of “●” is shown as the phase difference (T). As described above, when the lifestyle rhythm evaluation method according to the present embodiment is used, the circadian rhythm is expressed by using the behavior pattern of sleep.

  FIGS. 4 and 5 are examples of expressions that can be displayed by the notification means 9.

  By notifying by such a method, it becomes possible to convey the deviation of the biological rhythm visually and quantitatively to the subject of the biological rhythm evaluation.

  Note that the posture detection means 1 and the human body activity amount detection means 2 in the present embodiment are configured by the same acceleration sensor, but need not be the same, and may each include an acceleration sensor. .

  Further, the posture detection means 1 can detect the angle formed by the body axis and the vertical direction, and the case where the angle is 90 ° is always included in the range corresponding to the supine position.

  In the activity amount detection means 2, an activity level including at least the activity level during sleep is set.

Block diagram in an embodiment of the present invention A graph in which the posture detection result and activity level detection result of the present invention are collated with actual living behavior Flowchart in the embodiment of the present invention The graph which showed irregular sleep behavior using the output of bedtime and wake-up time in the embodiment of the present invention Graph showing circadian rhythm expression and circadian rhythm phase shift by sleep behavior

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Posture detection means 2 Human body activity amount detection means 3 Information storage means 4 Timekeeping means 5 Sleep time detection means 6 Wake-up time detection means 7 Sleep time detection means 8 Sleep evaluation means 9 Notification means

Claims (7)

The posture detection means for detecting the posture of the human body from the inclination of the body axis, the human body activity amount detection means for detecting the amount of activity of the human body, the time measuring means for measuring time, and the change of the posture and activity amount of the human body over time The biological rhythm evaluation apparatus characterized by including the sleep evaluation means which evaluates sleep behavior based on. The biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sleep evaluation means evaluates the biological rhythm from a bedtime, a wake-up time, and a sleep time that is a relative relationship between the bedtime. 2. The biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an acceleration sensor capable of simultaneously detecting an inclination of a body axis and a physical movement in the posture detection means and the human body activity amount detection means. The biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sleep evaluation means detects a phase difference of the biological rhythm from a sleeping time, a bedtime, and a wake-up time. The biological rhythm evaluation apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification means having a function of displaying an evaluation result of the sleep evaluation means. A posture detection step for detecting the posture of the human body from the inclination of the body axis, a human activity amount detection step for detecting the amount of activity of the human body, and a sleep evaluation for evaluating sleep behavior based on the temporal change of the posture and activity amount of the human body A biological rhythm evaluation method comprising the steps of: 6. A recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute all or part of the functions of each means according to claim 1.

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