JPH04270848A - Sleeping device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce the comfortable indoor environment through variation of a blast amount when a user is in the state to be in bed and a blast direction in a sleeping state, in a sleeping device to perform cooling and heating during sleeping. CONSTITUTION:A sleeping device comprises an air-conditioner 21 installed in a room, a body movement detecting means 8 located to bedclothes used in a room and detecting movement of the body of a user, a means 11 to decide that a user is in bed to detect it by means of a signal from the body movement detecting means that a user is in bed, a sleeping deciding means 12 to detect sleeping, and a control means 13 to vary a blast amount and the blast direction of the air-conditioner 21 by means of signals from the means 11 to decide that a user is in bed and the sleeping deciding means 12. This constitution corrects a blast amount by means of a blast amount correcting circuit 15 of the control means 13 when it is detected that a user is in bed and corrects a blast direction by the blast direction correcting circuit 20 during detection of sleeping.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sleeping device that provides heating and cooling during sleeping.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional sleeping device of this type is shown in FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an air conditioner, and a target indoor temperature of the air conditioner 1 is set by a remote control device 2. The remote control device 2 is comprised of a superconducting magnetoresistive element 3 for detecting the level of brain activity of a sleeper, and a control means 7 having a comparison circuit 4, a control command circuit 5, a transmission circuit 6, and the like.

[0003] The comparison circuit 4 determines the sleep state of the sleeper and outputs a control signal to the control command circuit 5 and the transmission circuit 6, and the transmission circuit 6 transmits the control signal to the air conditioner 1.
The air blowing direction of the air conditioner 1 was controlled (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-127839).

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, the superconducting magnetoresistive element 3 determines whether or not the sleeper is asleep, but cannot determine whether or not the sleeper is in bed. When the person is not in a sleeping state, the air blowing direction of the air conditioner 1 is mainly directed toward the sleeping person, but since the air blowing amount is not controlled, if the air blowing amount is large while the person is in bed, it may be harmful to the body. There were issues with the discomfort caused by direct wind blowing and the inability to sleep due to the noise.

[0005] The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a comfortable indoor environment when a human changes from an active state to a bed-bound state, and then also when a human falls asleep. It is something.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes an air conditioner installed indoors, and a body movement detection means installed on bedding used in the room to detect body movements of a sleeper. , a bed presence determination means for detecting presence in bed based on a signal from the body movement detection means, a sleep onset determination means for detecting sleep onset, and an air flow rate for controlling the air flow rate of the air conditioner based on the signal from the bed presence determination means. The apparatus is provided with a control means and a blowing direction control means for changing the blowing direction of the air conditioner based on a signal from the sleep determination means.

[0007]

[Operation] With the above configuration, the body movement detection means detects the body movement of the sleeping person during heating, and the bed presence determination means detects the presence of the bed based on the signal from the body movement detection means, and outputs the result. A signal is transmitted to the control means to reduce the amount of air blown by the air conditioner. If left in this state for a long time, the sleeper will not be disturbed by the noise caused by the large amount of air being blown, but if the direction of the air is blown upwards in the room, the temperature distribution in the room will deteriorate. Therefore, if the sleep onset determination means detects sleep onset thereafter, it transmits an output signal to the control means to change the air blowing direction of the air conditioner to the downward direction in the room.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 8 denotes body movement detecting means provided on the mattress 10 of the bed 9 and connected to the bed presence determining means 11. As shown in FIG. The bed presence determination means 11 is further connected to sleep onset determination means 12 . Bed presence determination means 11
The signal is sent to a first signal determination circuit 14 provided in the control means 13, and further sent to an air flow rate correction circuit 15. This signal, a signal from the initial setting circuit 18 connected to the room temperature sensor 16 and the operating section 17 for selecting cooling operation or heating operation, and a signal from the operating section 17 indicating whether the cooling operation or heating operation is selected. Based on this, the air blowing amount correction circuit 15 corrects the air blowing amount. The signal from the sleep onset determination means 12 is sent to a second signal determination circuit 19 provided in the control means 13, and further sent to the air blowing direction correction circuit 20. Based on this signal, the signal from the airflow amount correction circuit 15, and the signal from the operation unit 18, the airflow direction correction circuit 20 corrects the airflow direction and controls the air conditioner 21.

Next, the configurations of the bed presence determining means 11 and sleep onset determining means 12 will be explained using FIG. In the figure, 8 is a body movement detection means using a piezoelectric element, which is polyvinylidene fluoride (
This is a thin film made of a polymeric piezoelectric material such as PVDF, with flexible electrode films attached to both sides, and then molded into a tape. Reference numeral 11 denotes bed occupancy determining means, which is composed of a low-pass filter 22, an amplifier 23, a rectifier 24, an integrator 25, and a first comparator 26. 12 is a means for determining sleep onset;
It is connected to the bed presence determination means 11 and is composed of a timer 27 and a second comparator 28.

In the above structure, when a human body is present on the mattress 10, the body movement detecting means 8
It undergoes deformation due to body movements such as heartbeat, breathing, and turning over in bed, and a voltage is generated due to the piezoelectric effect. Then, only a predetermined frequency component of the generated voltage output passes through the low-pass filter 22, is amplified and rectified, and then passes through the integrator 2.
It is integrated by 5. FIG. 4 shows the output signal of the integrator 25 in an actual situation. As shown in the figure, there is a large output when gross body movements such as entering, leaving, or turning over occur.
When the person is in bed and at rest, a low level of output is obtained due to minute body movements associated with the human body's heartbeat and breathing, and when the person is out of bed, the output is zero. In other words, when sleeping, the mattress 1
As long as the human body exists above zero, a low-level output can be obtained at least due to minute body movements accompanying the human heartbeat and breathing as described above. Using this fact, the first comparator 2
In step 6, if the output signal of the integrator 25 is within the range of Va and Vb shown in FIG. 4, it is determined that there is a bed. Although there are individual differences in the human body's minute movements associated with heartbeat and breathing as described above, Va and Vb can be determined through experiments on human subjects.

[0012] Next, the inventors investigated the relationship between gross body movements and sleep states as described above. In other words, based on the knowledge that gross body movements disappear when falling asleep, sleep experiments have established a state in which gross body movements do not occur (hereinafter referred to as a state of quiescent gross body movements).
The relationship between the duration of the period and the probability that the sleeper is falling asleep in that state was determined. The results are shown in FIG. The horizontal axis of the figure shows the duration of the state of gross body motion and quiescence, and the left vertical axis shows the probability that the subject falls asleep when the gross body motion and cessation state continues for T hours. In addition, in the hypnotic state, the state of gross body motion and quiescence continues, and the state shifts from the hypnotic state to slow wave sleep, which is a deeper sleep, but at a certain point, gross body movement occurs again and slow wave sleep ends. Based on this, the right vertical axis of the figure shows the probability that gross body movements will occur and slow-wave sleep will end if the gross body motion static state continues for T hours. As is clear from Figure 5, for example, if the state of gross body motion and stasis continues for 15 minutes, there is a probability of falling asleep with about 85%, and a probability of falling asleep with about 10%.
It was found that slow-wave sleep ended with a probability of , and by measuring the duration of gross body motion and quiescence, it became possible to determine sleep onset at a level sufficient for practical use. That is, in the sleep onset determination means 12, when there is an output from the first comparator 26, the timer 27 performs a timing operation, and when there is no output, the timer 27
The timekeeping operation is stopped and reset. Then, the second comparator 28 determines that the patient is falling asleep if the time counted by the timer 27 exceeds a predetermined time. Here, as the predetermined time value, approximately 15 minutes is appropriate based on the above experimental results.

During heating, the bed presence determining means 11 generates a signal only when the presence of a bed is detected by the bed presence determining means 11 in FIG. The determination circuit 14 makes a determination, and the signal is sent to the air flow rate correction circuit 15, which in turn
Based on the heating operation signal selected in step 7, the amount of air blown from the air conditioner 21, which was previously set in the initial setting circuit 18, is reduced. Further, only when sleep onset detection is performed by the sleep onset determination means 12 subsequent to the bed presence detection, the sleep onset determination means 12 generates a signal, and the second signal determination circuit 19 determines that this signal is present. Then, the signal is sent to the air blowing direction correction circuit 20, and the air blowing direction circuit 20
Based on the heating operation signal selected in step 7, the air blowing direction as shown in FIG. 2 is changed to the lower part of the room while continuing the air blowing amount corrected by the air blowing amount correction circuit 16. In this way, during heating, the airflow amount and airflow direction are corrected in two stages: when the presence of a bed is detected and when sleep onset is detected. Of course, if bed presence detection and sleep onset detection are not performed, the bed presence determination means 11 and sleep onset determination means 12 will not send signals to the first signal determination circuit 14 and the second signal determination circuit 19, and the air flow rate and The air blowing direction is not corrected, and the air blowing amount and air blowing direction set by the initial setting circuit 18 continue until presence in bed and falling asleep are detected. Further, when only the presence of a bed is detected and the falling asleep is not detected, the air blowing amount corrected by the air blowing amount correction circuit 15 continues until falling asleep is detected.

According to the configuration of this embodiment, when the presence of a bed is detected, the amount of air blown is reduced to prevent sleep from being disturbed by noise, and when falling asleep is detected, the air blown direction is changed to the lower part of the room. This has the effect of preventing deterioration of temperature distribution.

[0015] The above description has been made regarding the heating operation in which the present invention is highly effective, but the same effect can be obtained during cooling as well.

[0016]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, since the sleeping device of the present invention is equipped with a bed presence determination means and a sleep onset determination means, it is possible to reduce the amount of air blown when a bed presence is detected and change the direction of air flow when sleep onset is detected. This has the effect of providing a comfortable indoor environment according to the state of human activity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of a sleeping device in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] External perspective view showing the relationship among the body movement detection means, bed presence determination means, sleep onset determination means, and air conditioner of the device.

[Fig. 3] A control block diagram showing the relationship among the body movement detection means, bed presence determination means, and sleep onset determination means of the device.

[Figure 4] Output waveform diagram from the integrator of the bed presence determination means in the same device

[Figure 5] Characteristic diagram showing the relationship between the duration of gross body motion and quiescence and the probability of falling asleep in the same device

[Fig. 6] Control block diagram of a conventional sleeping device

[Explanation of symbols]

8 Body movement detection means 11 Bed occupancy determination means 12. Sleep onset determination means 13 Control means 15 Air flow correction circuit 20　Blow direction correction circuit 21 Air conditioner body

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioner installed in a room, a body movement detection means installed in bedding used in the room to detect body movement of a sleeping person, and presence in bed detected by a signal from the body movement detection means. a bed-in-bed determination means for detecting sleep onset; A sleeping device comprising a blowing direction control means for changing the blowing direction of the machine. 2. During heating, the airflow rate control means includes an airflow rate correction circuit that reduces the airflow rate based on a signal from the bed occupancy determination means, and the airflow direction control means adjusts the airflow direction downward in the room based on the signal from the sleep onset determination means. The sleeping device according to claim 1, further comprising a blowing direction correction circuit for changing the direction of air.