Contactless Technologies, Sensors, and Systems for Cardiac and Respiratory Measurement during Sleep: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Sleep is essential to physical and mental health. However, the traditional approach to sleep analysis—polysomnography (PSG)—is intrusive and expensive. Therefore, there is great interest in the development of non-contact, non-invasive, and non-intrusive sleep monitoring systems and technologies that can reliably and accurately measure cardiorespiratory parameters with minimal impact on the patient. This has led to the development of other relevant approaches, which are characterised, for example, by the fact that they allow greater freedom of movement and do not require direct contact with the body, i.e., they are non-contact. This systematic review discusses the relevant methods and technologies for non-contact monitoring of cardiorespiratory activity during sleep. Taking into account the current state of the art in non-intrusive technologies, we can identify the methods of non-intrusive monitoring of cardiac and respiratory activity, the technologies and types of sensors used, and the possible physiological parameters available for analysis. To do this, we conducted a literature review and summarised current research on the use of non-contact technologies for non-intrusive monitoring of cardiac and respiratory activity. The inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selection of publications were established prior to the start of the search. Publications were assessed using one main question and several specific questions. We obtained 3774 unique articles from four literature databases (Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, PubMed, and Scopus) and checked them for relevance, resulting in 54 articles that were analysed in a structured way using terminology. The result was 15 different types of sensors and devices (e.g., radar, temperature sensors, motion sensors, cameras) that can be installed in hospital wards and departments or in the environment. The ability to detect heart rate, respiratory rate, and sleep disorders such as apnoea was among the characteristics examined to investigate the overall effectiveness of the systems and technologies considered for cardiorespiratory monitoring. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the considered systems and technologies were identified by answering the identified research questions. The results obtained allow us to determine the current trends and the vector of development of medical technologies in sleep medicine for future researchers and research.

Three Contactless Sleep Technologies Compared With Actigraphy and Polysomnography in a Heterogeneous Group of Older Men and Women in a Model of Mild Sleep Disturbance: Sleep Laboratory Study

“…Indeed, we have previously evaluated the CSTs against sleep diary-assisted actigraphy and have shown that the CSTs provide reliable estimates of bed occupancy in older people living at home [22]. Given their multimodal capabilities, improvements to their sleep detection algorithms to generalize results across populations could potentially lead to reliable sleep measures on par with PSG in the near future [8,37].…”

Reliable Contactless Monitoring of Heart Rate, Breathing Rate and Breathing Disturbance During Sleep in Aging: A Digital Health Technology Evaluation Study

“…At 1 minute resolution, the under-mattress devices had an acceptable accuracy with MAE < 2.12 bpm and MAPE < 5 % for heart rate estimate which is lower than the errors reported in the literature for wearable technologies during daily activities and for many contactless technologies during sleep [24, 28]. The breathing rate estimates at 1 minute resolution were acceptable across all three devices with a MAE ≤ 1.6 cpm and MAPE > 12 % and was comparable to other contactless technologies in in previous evaluations in young participants [28].…”

“…At 1 minute resolution, the under-mattress devices had an acceptable accuracy with MAE < 2.12 bpm and MAPE < 5 % for heart rate estimate which is lower than the errors reported in the literature for wearable technologies during daily activities and for many contactless technologies during sleep [24, 28]. The breathing rate estimates at 1 minute resolution were acceptable across all three devices with a MAE ≤ 1.6 cpm and MAPE > 12 % and was comparable to other contactless technologies in in previous evaluations in young participants [28]. The accuracy of both the vital signs estimates was higher during sleep than wake primarily due to reduced body movements.…”

“…They use several different contactless sensing modalities to measure a composite signal (ballistographic signal) containing movements resulting from breathing and cardiac activity to extract vital signs (heart rate and breathing rate) information. The bedside radars use the doppler radar technique while the under-mattress devices employ several different technologies such as electromechanical films and pneumatic sensors [28, 29]. Due to their inconspicuous nature and low maintenance, they do not pose any of the burdens imposed by wearables and are an ideal tool for continuous monitoring of vital signs, behavioural information, and sleep in community dwelling older adult populations, especially in PLWD [13, 14, 30, 31].…”

Editorial: Biomarkers of mental well-being continuum across life span: from excelling to crisis

“…The public realization of the importance of this individualized mental health continuum is reflected in the surge of personal health monitoring devices and biosensors in recent years (Kulkarni et al, 2022;Boiko et al, 2023;Seiferth et al, 2023). Managing mental wellness has been further ignited by the burdens of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased the reported cases of anxiety and depression across different age groups and brought new concerns regarding its long-term consequences on mental health and performance (Leung et al, 2022;Zeng et al, 2023).…”