JPH05187679A - Air conditioning method and air conditioner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve quality of sleep such as an increase in a REM sleeping time, etc., and to improve subjectively sleeping feeling in a room cooling operation at the time of sleeping, so-called an operation during sleep. CONSTITUTION:An air conditioning temperature is intermittently raised by 2-3 deg.C periodically or unperiodically during an operation for maintaining a set temperature. In this case, the operating time at the set temperature is set to 10-70min, whereas the operating time at the raised temperature is set to about 10-40min.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air conditioning method and an air conditioner.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the set temperature is increased by 1 to 2 ° C. after a lapse of a certain period of time after selecting a sleep key or detecting a sleep state in order to prevent chilling during sleep when performing a cooling operation. Control is performed (for example,
JP-A-62-32239, JP-A-2-68439
Publication).

[0003]

However, according to the above-mentioned control, there is a problem that the patient may be awake and may wake up in the middle of the sleep, or if the sleep mode is not used, a problem such as a chill may still occur. The reality is that it is difficult to say that the response to time is always done in a satisfactory state.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, and an object thereof is to provide an air conditioning method and an air conditioning method capable of improving sleep quality and subjective sleep feeling in the cooling season. To provide a machine.

[0005]

Therefore, the air conditioning method of claim 1 is characterized by intermittently raising the air conditioning temperature by 1 to 4 ° C. above the set temperature in the good night cooling operation mode.

The air conditioning method according to a second aspect of the invention is characterized in that the temperature range for intermittently increasing the temperature is 2 to 3 ° C.

Further, the air conditioning method according to a third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the operation is performed at a ratio of 10 to 70 minutes for the temperature-increased operation time to 10 to 70 minutes for the set temperature. There is.

An air conditioner according to a fourth aspect of the present invention comprises a mode switching means 1 for switching the operation mode to the good night cooling operation mode.
A capacity control means 2 for controlling the air conditioning capacity to bring the air conditioning temperature closer to the set temperature, and a fluctuation control means 3 for intermittently increasing the air conditioning temperature by 1 to 4 ° C. during the air conditioning capacity control in the good night cooling operation mode are provided. It is characterized by

An air conditioner according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the temperature range for intermittently increasing the temperature is 2 to 3 ° C.

Further, the air conditioner according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the air conditioner is operated at a ratio of 10 to 40 minutes for the temperature-increased operation time to the operation time for 10 to 70 minutes at the set temperature. There is.

[0011]

In the air conditioning method of claim 1 and the air conditioner of claim 4, although the reason is not clear,
It was confirmed that it is possible to improve the quality of sleep such as shortening of the latency until sleep stage IV, extension of REM sleep time, and improvement of subjective sleep feeling.

Further, it is most effective to set the temperature range to be intermittently raised to 2 to 3 ° C. as in claims 2 and 5, and the operating time ratio in which the temperature is further raised is also claimed. It was confirmed that it is effective to do as described in 3 and claim 5.

[0013]

EXAMPLES First, the experimental conditions will be described. The experiment was conducted for 6 subjects. The experimental conditions were a condition for maintaining the air conditioning temperature constant throughout the sleep period (hereinafter, referred to as a steady condition) and a condition for intermittently increasing the air conditioning temperature during the sleep period (hereinafter, referred to as fluctuation condition). When setting the temperature conditions, the optimum temperature was set during sleep, based on the subjective report of the subject's thermal sensation during the adaptive night under steady-state conditions. Under fluctuation conditions, the temperature was raised at a set temperature (base temperature) + 2 ° C under steady conditions. The cycle for increasing the temperature was set such that the duration and interval of REM sleep were set for each subject based on the sleep patterns of the adaptive night and the experimental night under steady conditions, and the temperature was increased during REM sleep. In addition, considering the temperature change due to circadian rhythm, 0.5 ° C between 3 am and 5 am
The base temperature was raised (the temperature on the high temperature side remained the same).

FIG. 1 shows the temperature settings under the fluctuation conditions for each subject. It should be noted that the temperature control is performed when the subject falls asleep (sleep stage I
It started from the time when I) was confirmed. The order of the steady condition and the fluctuation condition was random among the subjects.

The room temperature and the skin temperature were measured every 6 seconds with a portable data logger using a copper-constantan thermocouple and simultaneously taken into a personal computer. This measurement data was used in the temperature control program. The skin temperature is measured from 7 sites of the forehead, the abdomen, the thigh, the lower leg, the instep, the back of the hand, and the elbow, and weighted with the ratios of 7, 35, 14, 5, 19, 13, and 7, respectively, and the average skin temperature is calculated. Calculated (Hardy
7-point method). Room temperature is measured near the subject's head,
At the same time, the temperature of the wall surface on the immediate side was measured. These temperature data were subjected to a moving average of 5 points and displayed as an average value for 30 seconds.

In addition to the above skin temperature, physiological indicators include polysomnography, respiration (chest movement), and electrocardiogram on paper,
Recorded on a data recorder. From this paper record, Rech
Sleep depth classification of tschaffen & Kales (st
ageW = awakening, stageI = sleeping stage, StageI
I = light sleep, stage III = moderate sleep, st
According to ageIV = deep sleep stage, stageREM = REM sleep stage, the sleep depth for each page (30 seconds) of the recording paper was determined by visual inspection. At that time, the part where the electromyogram was mixed due to body movements and the like, which was difficult to determine, was designated as stageMT.

Regarding subjective sleep feeling, OS of 31 items
A Sleep Questionnaire (Mitsugu Oguri, Shuichiro Shirakawa, Kazuo Azumi: OSA
Development of Sleep Questionnaire-Statistical Scale Construction and Standardization for Sleep Sensitivity Assessment, Psychiatry, 27 (7), 791-799, 1
985) immediately after waking up, and five factors related to sleep (I. sleepiness factor, II. Sleep maintenance factor, II
I. Factors of concern, IV. Factors of integrated sleep, V. A factor value was calculated for the sleepiness factor), and the conditions were compared.

The subject (No.
2 and 3 show typical examples of changes in sleep pattern, average skin temperature, and room temperature in 4), and Table 1 shows comparison of sleep variable conditions for all subjects. ..
Further, FIG. 4 shows the time rate (average value) of each sleep stage for each condition. In comparison between sleep variable conditions, as shown in Table 1, in the fluctuation condition, the latency to sleep stage IV was shortened by about 10 minutes and the REM sleep duration was extended by about 22 minutes as compared with the steady condition. (All are statistically significant at a risk rate of 5% or less). There were no significant differences in other sleep variables, but overall, there was a tendency for good sleep quality under fluctuation conditions.

[0019]

[Table 1]

Regarding the score of the OSA sleep questionnaire, the average value of each factor for each condition is shown in a radar chart formula in FIG.
(Solid line: fluctuation condition, broken line: steady condition), and the larger the number, the better the feeling of sleep. In this subjective feeling of sleep, the sleepiness factor was significantly higher in the fluctuation condition than in the steady condition.

Regarding the skin temperature, it is difficult to recognize a constant tendency between the conditions due to the peeling of the temperature sensor due to body movements and the change in the contact state between the sensor and the bedding due to body position displacement. However, it was found that the average skin temperature showed a temperature change following the change of room temperature. Each test subject said that he did not feel the air flow, and it is probable that the air flow had no effect.

In the above experiment, based on the hypothesis that a more comfortable sleeping environment may be created by introducing temperature control to cope with so-called chills due to the dysregulation of the thermoregulatory reaction during REM sleep. I started. That is, the set temperature during the sleep onset period is raised to the REM sleep period. However, in actual control, the sleep state of the subject is not detected in real time, but the start time and duration of REM sleep are estimated based on the sleep pattern of the subject measured in advance, and the temperature is controlled. Nothing more. Therefore, on the actual experimental night, the temperature control pattern and the sleep pattern may shift. Regarding the agreement between the two, as shown in FIG. 6, there is a case where there is 66% or more of the agreement during REM sleep (subject No. 1), and the subject No. 1 in FIG. There are some cases in which the phase is completely inverted as in No. 6, and the two do not always match. However, longer REM under fluctuation conditions compared to steady conditions
From the fact that sleep was observed and the improvement of sleep quality was observed, it is considered that the temperature increase in the REM period is not always indispensable, and the mere temperature shift has an effect.

It was found that there was a significant difference in the sleepiness factor of subjective sleep sensation, and that the latency until the sleep stage IV was shorter than that in the steady condition under the fluctuation condition. That is, it means that sleep was good under the fluctuation condition. Note that the difference in temperature control between the two conditions occurs after the first REM sleep, and the temperature settings under each condition up to that point are exactly the same within each subject. The cause of the difference is unknown.

As described above, it is clear that the quality of sleep and the subjective feeling of sleep are improved under the fluctuation condition. However, even if the temperature rise value is set to 1 ° C. or about 4 ° C., some effect can be obtained. Have confirmed that The most effective temperature rise value was 2-3 ° C.

FIG. 9 shows temperature control conditions in another test. This is a 1 / f fluctuation control as a temperature control method. In this case, conditions are set so that the operating time at the set temperature and the operating time at which the temperature rises are approximately the same, or the operating time at which the temperature rises is slightly longer than the operating time at the set temperature. Similarly to the above example, it was confirmed that the sleep quality was improved by shortening the latency to sleep stage IV and extending the REM sleep time, and that the subjective feeling of sleep was also improved.

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of an example of an air conditioner suitable for implementing the above-mentioned air conditioning method. This is a mode switching means 1 for switching the operation mode to the good night cooling operation mode, a capacity control means 2 for controlling the capacity of the compressor 5 or the like so as to bring the air conditioning temperature closer to the set temperature set by the temperature setting means 4, and the above-mentioned. The fluctuation control means 3 for intermittently increasing the set temperature set in the temperature setting means 4 in a pattern as shown in FIG. Implementation of the method is possible.

[0027]

As described above, according to the air conditioning method of claim 1 and the air conditioner of claim 4, during the cooling season, sleep such as shortening the latency to sleep stage IV and extending the REM sleep time is performed. It becomes possible to perform a good night driving while improving the quality of sleep and further improving the subjective feeling of sleep.

In this case, the temperature range to be intermittently increased is
It is most effective to set the temperature to 2 to 3 ° C. as in claims 2 and 5, and it is also effective to set the operating time ratio in which the temperature rises as in claims 3 and 5. is there.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a time chart diagram showing temperature setting conditions in an embodiment of an air conditioning method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a subject No. in a comparative example in which the set temperature is constant. 4 is a time chart showing changes in sleep pattern, average skin temperature, and room temperature of No. 4;

FIG. 3 shows the subject No. in the example in which the set temperature is increased intermittently. 4 is a time chart showing changes in sleep pattern, average skin temperature, and room temperature of No. 4;

FIG. 4 is a graph showing sleep stage appearance rates (average values) under fluctuation conditions and steady conditions in comparison.

FIG. 5 is a radar chart showing an average value of each factor of subjective sleep feeling.

6] Subject No. 3 is a time chart showing the correlation between the REM sleep period and the air conditioning temperature rise period in FIG.

7] Subject No. 6 is a time chart showing the correlation between the REM sleep period and the air conditioning temperature rise period in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an example of an air conditioner suitable for implementing the air conditioning method of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a time chart diagram showing temperature setting conditions in another embodiment of the air conditioning method of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Mode switching means 2 Capacity control means 3 Fluctuation control means

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An air conditioning method characterized in that, in the good night cooling operation mode, the air conditioning temperature is intermittently raised by 1 to 4 ° C. above a set temperature. 2. The temperature range in which the temperature is intermittently increased is 2 to 3.
The air conditioning method according to claim 1, wherein the temperature is in ° C. 3. The operation according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the operation is performed at a ratio of 10 to 40 minutes to the operation time when the temperature has risen with respect to the operation time of 10 to 70 minutes at the set temperature. Air conditioning method. 4. A mode switching means (1) for switching an operation mode to a good night cooling operation mode, and a capacity control means (2) for controlling an air conditioning capacity so that an air conditioning temperature approaches a set temperature.
And an fluctuation control means (3) for intermittently increasing the air conditioning temperature by 1 to 4 ° C. during the air conditioning capacity control in the good night cooling operation mode. 5. The temperature range in which the temperature is intermittently increased is 2 to 3.
The air conditioner according to claim 4, wherein the air conditioner has a temperature of ° C. 6. The operation according to claim 4 or 5, wherein operation is performed at a ratio of 10 to 40 minutes for an operating time when the temperature has risen with respect to an operating time of 10 to 70 minutes according to the set temperature. Air conditioner.