Salzburg app analyzes sleep – salzburg.ORF.at
Health
An app from the University of Salzburg is intended to make it easier for people to fall asleep and sleep through the night. With the help of a chest strap, the program analyzes the sleep phases and gives instructions for improved sleep quality.
According to their own estimates, a quarter of Austrians sleep poorly, in German-speaking countries there are 25 million people. A 2013 study showed that 30 percent of the German population had trouble falling asleep or sleeping through the night at least three times a week.
“Problems falling asleep and staying asleep are common”
According to the head of the Salzburg sleep laboratory and co-developer of the sleep app, Manuel Schabus, there is no such study for Austria, but in this country a high level of damage is affected: “Too many people find it difficult to rest and believe that they can save on sleep, to gain time,” says the sleep researcher. Sleep is a central factor for the recovery of the immune system and with patience anyone can learn to sleep well, Manuel Schabus from the University of Salzburg is convinced. Together with other scientists, the Salzburger developed the sleep app.
Chest strap measures sleep phases
With the help of a chest strap, the heart activity is measured and the sleep phases are determined – the collected data is comparable to the exact measurements in a sleep laboratory, only WILL be measured with the app at home and via the cell phone. “As a person affected, I usually wait a few months for a night in the sleep laboratory and the health insurance pays a lot of money for it. In this case it’s easy – with the app I get instructions every night on how I can sleep better. From the collected data, we can calculate individualizations of what people need in order to be able to sleep better,” says Schabus.
Pilot study: Better sleep, less waking up
In addition to the sleep analysis, the app also offers coaching in the form of information, exercises and tips. A pilot study conducted by Schabus over a period of six weeks with 48 participants aged 30 to 73 showed that the sleep quality of the test subjects improved by around 25 percent immediately after the end of therapy and that the frequency of waking up fell by 65 percent.
Four weeks later, the improvement was around 30 percent. “Evolution would not have allowed us humans to be inactive and paralyzed if this condition were not very important to us,” sleep researcher Schabus should consider. The app is called Nukkuaa, Finnish for sleep. The mobile phone program is a spin-off project from the University of Salzburg with a private operator. The developers are also aiming to work with health insurance companies and companies, and negotiations are already underway.