A new study by the American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA) and IBM involving an app that monitors sleep patterns will help researchers determine connections between rest and health. The new iPhone app, called SleepHealth and powered by IBM's Watson intelligence system, helps users track their sleep habits and general health when completing tasks and submitting surveys through the app.
Based on movements made by the user during sleep and heart rate measures, SleepHealth then suggests how to live a healthier life and get better rest. The app uses sensors from your iPhone or Apple Watch to do this, including the accelerometer, which detects movements, and the gyroscope, which determines orientation in space.
"We've made life the laboratory for this study by crowd-sourcing data and input to achieve an unprecedented understanding of sleep in a non-invasive manner," Carl Stepnowsky, PhD, principal investigator for the study, associate professor at University of California at San Diego and ASAA's chief science officer, said. "This study also marks the Association's commitment to patient-led research and data-driven discovery. With ResearchKit and Watson Health Cloud, this new app will help us build the world's largest longitudinal study to collect data on both healthy and unhealthy sleepers that can be shared with other researchers in an open-source format."
The Watson Health Cloud, which is HIPPA-compliant, then operates as the back-end data solution for the study, enabling researchers to combine data collected from the SleepHealth app with other diverse sources, ranging from treatment guidelines to medical literature.
"One of our goals at IBM Watson Health is to eliminate silos that hinder collaboration between researchers, patients and clinicians, and create opportunities for these communities to share and learn from one another," Kyu Rhee, M.D., chief health officer for Watson Health, said. "It is exciting to see Watson Health and our ecosystem of partners help advance our understanding of how an essential, yet often under-appreciated factor like sleep impacts so many health outcomes like heart disease and diabetes."
Researchers said they are hopeful that after several years of data collection, they'll actually be able to develop health interventions based around sleep-related health issues.
The SleepHealth app is currently available for free download from the App Store to anyone in the U.S. Study participants must be 18 years or older and understand English.
For more information about the SleepHealth Mobile App Study, visit Sleeptember.org.
