NAPping PAnts (NAPPA): An open wearable solution for monitoring Infant's sleeping rhythms, respiration and posture
Sofie de Sena,
Matias Häggman,
Jukka Ranta,
Oleksii Roienko,
Elina Ilén,
Natalia Acosta,
Jonna Salama,
Turkka Kirjavainen,
Nathan Stevenson,
Manu Airaksinen,
Sampsa Vanhatalo
Affiliations
Sofie de Sena
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Corresponding author. Department of Physiology (BABA center) Biomedicum, room B129b Tukholmankatu 8, 00250, Helsinki, Finland.
Matias Häggman
School of Science, Department of Mathematics and Systems Analysis, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland
Jukka Ranta
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Oleksii Roienko
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Elina Ilén
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech, Barcelona, Spain
Natalia Acosta
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Jonna Salama
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Turkka Kirjavainen
Department of Paediatrics, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
Nathan Stevenson
Brain Modelling Group, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Australia
Manu Airaksinen
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Sampsa Vanhatalo
BABA Center, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Children's Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital and University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Department of Physiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Study objectives: To develop a non-invasive and practical wearable method for long-term tracking of infants’ sleep. Methods: An infant wearable, NAPping PAnts (NAPPA), was constructed by combining a diaper cover and a movement sensor (triaxial accelerometer and gyroscope), allowing either real-time data streaming to mobile devices or offline feature computation stored in the sensor memory. A sleep state classifier (wake, N1/REM, N2/N3) was trained and tested for NAPPA recordings (N = 16649 epochs of 30 s), using hypnograms from co-registered polysomnography (PSG) as a training target in 33 infants (age 2 weeks to 18 months; Mean = 4). User experience was assessed from an additional group of 16 parents. Results: Overnight NAPPA recordings were successfully performed in all infants. The sleep state classifier showed good overall accuracy (78 %; Range 74–83 %) when using a combination of five features related to movement and respiration. Sleep depth trends were generated from the classifier outputs to visualise sleep state fluctuations, which closely aligned with PSG-derived hypnograms in all infants. Consistently positive parental feedback affirmed the effectiveness of the NAPPA-design. Conclusions: NAPPA offers a practical and feasible method for out-of-hospital assessment of infants’ sleep behaviour. It can directly support large-scale quantitative studies and development of new paradigms in scientific research and infant healthcare. Moreover, NAPPA provides accurate and informative computational measures for body positions, respiration rates, and activity levels, each with their respective clinical and behavioural value.
