Nowadays, scientists and healthcare professionals are more aware that the importance of sleep is not only about quantity, but also about quality of sleep. There is a TED talk given by Dan Gartenberg, a sleep scientist working on technology that stimulates deep sleep.
The talk was about the problems that we can develop if we don’t have good night’s sleep. Poor sleep is linked to cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Additionally, it has many important impacts on our physiological processes and mental states.
Dan Gartenberg’s curiosity arose while investigating how to obtain more sleep through technology. Dr Dmitry Gerashchenko, fellow research, introduced him to a German study that demonstrated when playing certain sounds during particular parts of sleep, this sleep becomes deeper and more efficient. This investigation also showed that such an intervention could improve next day memory performance.
Gartenberg and Dr Dimitri teamed up and they commenced experimentation in order to validate their system and develop deep-sleep stimulating technology. They connected a series of devices and when they detected deep sleep, they played a series of stimulating sounds that helped people to deepen sleep. “Sound waves are at the same burst frequency as your brain waves when your brain is in deep sleep; this sound produced more regenerative delta waves when we played the audio”, Gartenberg explained.
If you wish to watch the complete TED talk, here is the link: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gartenberg_the_brain_benefits_of_deep_sleep_and_how_to_get_more_of_it
References
Gartenberg, Dan. At TED Residency. The brain benefits of deep sleep — and how to get more of it. Recorded June 2017.
