US-12623047-B2 - Device, method, and app for facilitating sleep

US12623047B2US 12623047 B2US12623047 B2US 12623047B2US-12623047-B2

Abstract

A device, system, and method for facilitating a sleep cycle in a subject, comprising selecting a waveform from a plurality of waveforms derived from brainwaves of at least one sleeping donor, wherein said waveform corresponds to at least one specific stage of sleep; and stimulating the subject with at least one stimulus, wherein said at least one stimulus is at least one of an auditory stimulus and a visual stimulus modulated with the selected waveform to entrain the brain of the subject with the selected waveform to facilitate sleep in the subject.

Inventors

Alexander Poltorak

Assignees

Neuroenhancement Lab, LLC

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20231016

Claims (20)

1 . A system for facilitating sleep, comprising: a database comprising a plurality of database records, each database record being associated with a respective human sleep stage of a plurality of human sleep stages, and each database record defining a brain electrical activity waveform associated with the respective human sleep stage; a neurostimulator configured to stimulate a sleeping human subject with a sensory stimulus adapted to achieve brain entrainment of the sleeping human subject, and alter a human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject; and at least one automated processor, configured to: determine a current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject; monitor a progress of the sleeping human subject through a sleep cycle comprising a defined sequence of sleep stages based on current human sleep stage; modify the progress of the sleeping human subject through the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of human sleep stages dependent on a deviation of the current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages, to a portion of the sequence of sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage within the defined sequence of sleep stages; define a stimulation pattern of the sensory stimulus for the sleeping human subject, dependent on the current human sleep stage, the progress of the sleeping human through the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of human sleep stages, and at least one database record of the database; and control the neurostimulator to deliver the sensory stimulus based on at least the defined stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the stimulation pattern comprises at least two concurrent modulated signals.
3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein the at least two concurrent modulated signals comprise at least two different audio signals, together configured to generate binaural beats.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of database records are derived from brain electrical activity measurements acquired during at least one human sleep cycle.
5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one automated processor is further configured to define a new database record of the database by monitoring electroencephalographic signals from a sleeping human over a sleep cycle.
6 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a memory configured to store instructions of a sleep app, configured to be executed by the at least one automated processor, the sleep app being downloadable and upgradable from a remote server.
7 . The system according to claim 6 , further comprising a user interface configured to control an adaptively defined sequence of the human sleep stages, and the deviation of the current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages comprises an awakening.
8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one automated processor is configured to phase synchronize the defined stimulation pattern with a brain electrical activity of the sleeping human subject detected with an electroencephalographic sensor.
9 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises a multimodal sensory stimulator.
10 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises a visual stimulator and an audio stimulator.
11 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein each defined brain electrical activity waveform is derived from at least one recording of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human, processed using a statistical decision analysis.
12 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises at least one light emitting diode disposed in a sleep mask configured to be illuminated proximate to the sleeping human subject's eyes.
13 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one sensor configured to determine at least an eye movement, and the at least one automated processor is configured to determine the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject based on an output of the at least one sensor.
14 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising providing at least one electroencephalographic sensor, and the at least one automated processor is configured to determine the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject based on an output of the at least one electroencephalographic sensor.
15 . A system for facilitating sleep, comprising: a database configured to store a plurality of database records associated with respective human sleep stages, each database record defining a brain electrical activity waveform associated with a respective human sleep stage of a plurality of different sleep stages; a sensor configured to determine a current human sleep stage of a sleeping human subject; at least one automated processor configured to: monitor a current sleep stage and a progress of the sleeping human subject through a defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages; determine a deviation between the current sleep stage and an expected current sleep stage according to the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages; modify the progress of the sleeping human subject through the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages dependent on at least the determined deviation, to a respective sleep stage within the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage; and define a stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject, dependent on the current sleep stage, the progress of the sleeping human subject through the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages, and at least one database record of the database corresponding to a next sleep stage in the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages; and a neurostimulator configured to stimulate a sleeping human subject with a sensory stimulus, dependent on at least the defined stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject, the sensory stimulus being configured to achieve brain entrainment of the sleeping human subject.
16 . The system according to claim 15 , wherein the stimulation pattern comprises at least two concurrent modulated audio signals together configured to generate binaural beats.
17 . The system according to claim 15 , further comprising time synchronizing the defined stimulation pattern with a brain electrical activity of the sleeping human subject detected using an electroencephalographic sensor.
18 . The system according to claim 15 , wherein the sensor is configured to determine at least a movement of the sleeping human subject, and wherein the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject is determined based on the at least one sensor.
19 . A system to facilitate sleep in a sleeping human subject, comprising: a user device having at least one programmable processor and a sleep app executable on the at least one programmable processor, the sleep app including: instructions for determining a current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject; instructions for selecting a record in a database storing a plurality of records in dependence on at least the current sleep stage, each record of the database defining a respective waveform derived from brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor, instructions for monitoring a progress of the sleeping human subject through a defined sequence of sleep stages based on current human sleep stage; and instructions for modifying the progress of the sleeping human subject through the sequence of sleep stages dependent on a deviation of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages, to a portion of the sequence of sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage within the defined sequence of sleep stages; and instructions for stimulating the sleeping human subject with at least one stimulus modulated with the waveform defined in the selected record, wherein the selected waveform is configured to entrain the brain of the sleeping subject facilitating sleep in the sleeping human subject.
20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein each record of the database defines a subset of a set of components of the respective waveform, the subset selectively corresponding to respective sleep stages, derived from recordings of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor, the components being extracted from the recordings of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor using at least one of a principal component analysis (PCA), a correspondence analysis (CA), a factor analysis, a K-means clustering, a non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), a sparse PCA, a non-linear PCA, a robust PCA, an independent component analysis (ICA), a network component analysis, and a singular spectral analysis.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/883,541, filed May 26, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,786,694, issued Oct. 17, 2023, which is a Non-provisional of, and claims benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e) from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/862,656, filed Jun. 17, 2019, and from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/852,877, filed May 24, 2019, each of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention generally relates to the field of neuromodulation and neuroenhancement, and more specifically to systems, methods and applications for improving achievement and/or maintenance of sleep. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Each reference and document cited herein is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, for all purposes. Brain Computer Interface (BCI): sometimes called a neural-control interface (NCI), mind-machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), or brain-machine interface (BMI), is a communication pathway between a brain and an external computerized device. BCI may allows for bidirectional information flow. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. See, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface. A bidirectional adaptive BCI controlling computer buzzer by an anticipatory brain potential, the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) potential has been reported. The experiment described how an expectation state of the brain, manifested by CNV, controls in a feedback loop the S2 buzzer in the S1-S2-CNV paradigm. The obtained cognitive wave representing the expectation learning in the brain is named Electroexpectogram (EXG). Electroencephalography (EEG) is the most studied non-invasive interface, mainly due to its fine temporal resolution, ease of use, portability and low set-up cost. See Reference List 1. Time in a biological manner: Almost everything in biology is subject to change over time. These changes occur on many different time scales, which vary greatly. For example, there are evolutionary changes that affect entire populations over time rather than a single organism. Evolutionary changes are often slower than a human time scale that spans many years (usually a human lifetime). Faster variations of the timing and duration of biological activity in living organisms occur, for example, in many essential biological processes in everyday life: in humans and animals, these variations occur, for example, in eating, sleeping, mating, hibernating, migration, cellular regeneration, etc. Other fast changes may include the transmission of a neural signal, for example, through a synapse such as the calyx of held, a particularly large synapse in the auditory central nervous system of mammals that can reach transmission frequencies of up to 50 Hz. With recruitment modulation, the effective frequencies can be higher. A single nerve impulse can reach a speed as high as one hundred meters (0.06 mile) per second (Kraus, David. Concepts in Modern Biology. New York: Globe Book Company, 1969:170.). Myelination of axons can increase the speed of transmission by segmenting the membrane depolarization process. Many of these changes over time are repetitive or rhythmic and are described as some frequency or oscillation. The field of chronobiology, for example, examines such periodic (cyclic) phenomena in living organisms and their adaptation, for example, to solar and lunar-related rhythms [DeCoursey et al. (2003).] These cycles are also known as biological rhythms. The related terms chronomics and chronome have been used in some cases to describe either the molecular mechanisms involved in chronobiological phenomena or the more quantitative aspects of chronobiology, particularly where comparison of cycles between organisms is required. Chronobiological studies include, but are not limited to, comparative anatomy, physiology, genetics, molecular biology, and behavior of organisms within biological rhythms mechanics [DeCoursey et al. (2003).]. Other aspects include epigenetics, development, reproduction, ecology, and evolution. The most important rhythms in chronobiology are the circadian rhythms, roughly 24-hour cycles shown by physiological processes in all these organisms. It is regulated by circadian clocks. The circadian rhythms can be further broken down into routine cycles during the 24-hour day [Nelson R J. 2005. An Introduction to Behavioral Endocrinology. Sinauer Associates, Inc.: Massachusetts. Pg. 587.] All animals can be classified according to their activity cycles: Diurnal, which describes organisms active during daytime; Nocturnal, which describes organisms active in the night; and Crepuscular, which describes animals primarily active during the dawn and dusk hours (ex: white-tailed deer, some bats). While circadian rhythms are defined a