Prospects of electrosleep therapy devices for long-distance drivers

Abstract

Accomulated exhaustion is a fairly common problem for long-distance truck and bus drivers on international routes. In case of uncompensated exhaustion, the driver is unable to overcome the resulting attention violations with will effort, which increases the probability of errors and accidents. The last claim is confirmed by the increase in the number of incidents after 7 h and especially 10 h of work. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to stop and fall asleep for a short time. Recovery comes in about 10–15 min of relaxation. The source of stimulation of the brain is weak impulse current, which causes sleep of varying depth and duration. Clinical studies have shown that the strongest impact is on pulses with a duration of approximately 0.3– –0.5 ms and a frequency of repetition ranging from 0.5–2 to 80–100 Hz. Current levels are typically between 50 and 5 mA. Transcranial electrotherapy is considered to stimulate endorphin production and affect the hypothalamus, causing changes in neurohormonal regulatory mechanisms and reticular formation of the brain stem. The reticular formation is involved in many behavioral reactions and has a significant impact on body functioning and thought processes. The aim of this work was to determine correlation between human brain biorhythms and electrosleep device signal by calculating mutual correlation. For this purpose, the model in MATLAB Simulink environment was developed. The encephalogram was processed using the EEGLAB tool to remove artifacts. A model in the MATLAB Simulink environment was developed to evaluate the effect of the signal characteristics of electrosleep therapy devices on brain biorhythms, with the help of which correlation coefficients were calculated.

Keywords

• encephalogram
• biorhythms
• correlation coefficients
• impulse signals
• electrosleep therapy devices
• long-distance drivers