An unique bed mattress and pillow system that uses heating and cooling to inform the body it is time to go to sleep has actually now been established by bioengineers at The University of Texas at Austin.
To increase blood flow to dissipate body heat, the engineered bed mattress is designed to at the same time cool the central locations of the body while heating up the neck, hands, and feet.
It looked at two variations of the bed mattress: one that uses water and another that uses air to control the core body temperature. Decreasing the internal body temperature level at the right circadian time sends out the signal that it is time to go to sleep. Targeting the important bodily sensors in simply a few areas that control heat dissipation, and therefore body temperature level, made more sense than focusing on the whole body.
A take a look at the heating and cooling sections of the mattress using a thermal camera. Credit: The University of Texas at Austin
Throughout the course of a day, people alternate in between feeling alert and drowsy. This feeling is really controlled in part by the ebb and circulation of a 24-hour rhythm of their body temperature. A distinct mattress and pillow system that uses heating and cooling to inform the body it is time to go to sleep has now been developed by bioengineers at The University of Texas at Austin.
When the body temperature drops during the night as part of the 24-hour cycle, sleep is provoked. With the new mattress, people may drop off to sleep quicker and have better-quality sleep because it stimulates the body to make them feel sleepy.
” We help with the readiness to fall asleep by manipulating internal body temperature-sensitive sensing units to briefly change the thermostat of the body so it thinks the temperature is greater than it really is,” stated Shahab Haghayegh, a research fellow at Harvard Medical Schools Division of Sleep Medicine and Brigham and Womens Hospital, who helped lead the development of the bed mattress at UT Austin while earning a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. Haghayegh graduated in 2020.
A crucial bodily thermostat for human beings is the skin of the neck. For that reason, it is the primary sensing unit the bed mattress targets, by methods of a warming pillow. To increase blood flow to dissipate temperature, the crafted bed mattress is created to simultaneously cool the main locations of the body while heating up the neck, hands, and feet.
That experience is managed in part by the ebb and circulation of a 24-hour rhythm of their body temperature level when individuals feel alert or drowsy. At The University of Texas at Austin, bioengineers have developed an unique bed mattress and pillow system that utilizes heating and cooling to tell the body it is time to go to sleep.
In the Journal of Sleep Research, the researchers published a proof-of-concept research study about the distinct combination warming pillow plus cooling-warming, dual-zone bed mattress system. It looked at two variations of the bed mattress: one that utilizes water and another that utilizes air to manipulate the core body temperature level.
According to the outcomes, the warming and the cooling-warming bed mattress helped them drop off to sleep quicker– roughly 58% faster compared with nights when they did not use the cooling-warming function, even in the tough setting of an earlier bedtime. In addition to drastically lowering the time required to fall asleep, decreasing internal body temperature also produced significantly improved quality of sleep.
The project emerged out of a bigger objective in the lab of Kenneth Diller, a teacher in the Cockrell School of Engineering and an expert in heat and temperature level guideline for restorative devices, to find new methods to utilize thermal stimulation to assist people sleep. The scientists released a research study in 2019 that discovered taking a warm bath an hour or 2 before bed assisted people drop off to sleep rapidly and sleep better.
This project is similar but more targeted. Lowering the internal body temperature level at the ideal circadian time sends out the signal that it is time to go to sleep. Targeting the important physical sensors in simply a couple of locations that manage heat dissipation, and thus body temperature level, made more sense than focusing on the whole body.
” It is exceptional how efficient gentle warming along the cervical spine remains in sending out a signal to the body to increase blood flow to the feet and hands to lower the core temperature level and precipitate sleep onset,” Diller said. “This same effect also makes it possible for the blood pressure to fall a little overnight, with the advantage of enabling the cardiovascular system to recover from the stress of preserving blood circulation during day-to-day activities, which is extremely crucial for long-term health.”
The team of researchers has a patent for the cooling-warming bed mattress and pillow technology and is looking for collaborations with bed mattress companies to commercialize it.
Reference: “Novel temperature-controlled sleep system to enhance sleep: a proof-of-concept study” by Shahab Haghayegh, Sepideh Khoshnevis, Michael H. Smolensky, Ramon C. Hermida, Richard J. Castriotta, Eva Schernhammer and Kenneth R. Diller, 19 July 2022, Journal of Sleep Research.DOI: 10.1111/ jsr.13662.
Other members of the team are Sepideh Khoshnevis and Michael Smolensky of UT Austin, Ramón Hermida of the University of Vigo in Spain, Richard Castriotta of the University of Southern California and Eva Schernhammer of Harvard University.
