Improving health and happiness with wearable sleep EEG

For this project, Radboudumc / the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour teamed up with Arenar B.V. to develop and further improve wearable EEG recordings with comfortable headbands to measure and improve sleep and dreaming. Sleep is vital for mental and bodily health: disturbed sleep is increases the risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease; psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders; and age‐related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. As up to a third of society suffers from poor sleep quality or short sleep, the burden not only for the affected individuals, but also for the health system and economy are massive. Sleep measurements of reasonable quality typically require laboratory recordings that are effortful and expensive. This project developed and further improved smart EEG headbands to measure and improve sleep. First, the development of a toolbox of machine learning algorithms allows to automatic analyze signals from EEG headbands and differentiate different sleep stages. Second, mild auditory stimulation precisely timed to slow brain waves indicative of deep sleep can improve sleep depth. Third, mild visual and auditory stimulation techniques associated with brief mindfulness exercises increase the chance of experiencing lucid dreaming – mindful dream experiences that have been associated with increased creativity, motor skill learning and reduced nightmares. As a whole, the project developed, refined and validated software and hardware for smart and affordable wearable systems to measure and improve sleep and dreaming, thereby contributing to improved health and wellbeing of consumer and patient populations.