[Use of microcomputers in polysomnography]

Constantly falling prices and increasing power combine to make the personal computer an attractive alternative to established recording devices for use in polysomnography. Apart from its price advantage, digital recording of psychophysiological signals offers the possibility of selective display (compression and zooming to parts of special interest), and also semi-automatic evaluation. In order to be able to feed the data acquired in the sleep laboratory into the computer, an interface for signal matching, an analog/digital converter, and suitable software, are required. In order to reduce the wealth of data to the clinically relevant (and, in the last resort, also manageable) amount, preprocessing hardware, such as EEG filters, snore detectors, etc., are required. The system we recommend comprises individual hardware, modules for the pickup of physiological signals, and flexibly combinable software routines that permit adaptation to any future expansions of changing medical problems.