Reconstruction of Pulse Wave and Respiration From Wrist Accelerometer During Sleep

Nocturnal recordings of heart rate and respiratory rate usually require several separate sensors or electrodes attached to different body parts - a disadvantage for at-home screening tests and for large cohort studies. In this paper, we demonstrate that a state-of-the-art accelerometer placed at subjects' wrists can be used to derive reliable signal reconstructions of heartbeat (pulse wave intervals) and respiration during sleep.

Based on 226 full-night recordings, we evaluate the performance of our signal reconstruction methodology with respect to polysomnography. We use a phase synchronization analysis metrics that considers individual heartbeats or breaths.

The quantitative comparison reveals that pulse-wave signal reconstructions are generally better than respiratory signal reconstructions. The best quality is achieved during deep sleep, followed by light sleep N2 and REM sleep. In addition, a suggested internal evaluation of multiple derived reconstructions can be used to identify time periods with highly reliable signals, particularly for pulse waves. Furthermore, we find that pulse-wave reconstructions are hardly affected by apnea and hypopnea events.

During sleep, pulse wave and respiration signals can simultaneously be reconstructed from the same accelerometer recording at the wrist without the need for additional sensors. Reliability can be increased by internal evaluation if the reconstructed signals are not needed for the whole sleep duration.

The presented methodology can help to determine sleep characteristics and improve diagnostics and treatment of sleep disorders in the subjects' normal sleep environment.