JP3074993B2 - Sleeping pillow - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a sleep pillow provided with a temperature control device for smoothly sleeping and ensuring good quality sleep.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in a complicated society, psychological and mental stresses such as anxiety, dissatisfaction, anger, and irritability have increased, and these stresses have caused insomnia and the like. I have. There is a cooling pillow as one method for relieving such stress and, particularly, when sleeping in a high-temperature environment such as a tropical night, promptly induces a sleep state to achieve a deep sleep. This kind of conventional pillow is an electronic cooling pillow using the Peltier effect,
Pillows that cool the head by storing cold in a refrigerator or the like in advance using a cold storage agent have been proposed. However, in these conventional cooling pillows, only the head is cooled, and the temperature control is not necessarily performed so that the user can go to bed smoothly and secure good quality sleep.

[0003]

As described above, the conventional cooling pillow detects the temperature of the human body (skin temperature) and does not control it based on the temperature information. Since the head is only cooled, the sleep onset speed becomes slow due to the head being too cold, and more specifically, there is a problem that the time until reaching the deep sleep period needs to be very long. In addition, during the deep sleep period when the body temperature regulation function does not work (st. 3)
Or st. In the 4) and REM sleep periods in which the autonomic nervous system is disturbed, the head may be too cold or may cause an arousal due to the head. Furthermore, the time period during which the REM sleep period appears in each sleep cycle is slightly delayed every day, and it is said that it has a cycle of about two weeks. There is no sleeping pillow that has been used so far, and when a sleep rhythm is captured in a period of 80 to 110 minutes and controlled based on the time, there is a problem that a deviation from an actual sleep state occurs as day passes.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the sleeping pillow according to the present invention has a temperature control device having a heat-generating portion or a heat-absorbing portion for adjusting the temperature of the head as shown in FIG. Device 2 and a temperature detector 3 for detecting the temperature of the temperature controller 2
A skin temperature detecting unit 1 for detecting a skin surface temperature of the head,
A judging unit 4 for judging the temperature detected by the two detecting units 1 and 3;
And a controller 5 for controlling the temperature of the temperature controller 2 in accordance with the output of the judging unit 4.
Here, it is preferable that the head skin temperature is kept in a range of 35 ± 0.5 ° C. Further, the configuration shown in FIG. 3 is configured so that the sleep rhythm timer 6 can automatically control the temperature change in accordance with the rem / non-rem cycle of 80 to 110 minutes. Next, in the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the timer 6 for sleep rhythm is obtained by using the timer 6 for sleep rhythm together with the timer 6 for sleep rhythm as shown in FIG. It is configured to eliminate the phase shift of the sleep rhythm that is performed. Further, in the configuration shown in FIG. 6, a biological signal detection unit 8 for detecting a biological signal and a sleep signal based on the biological signal from the biological signal detection unit 8 for changing the temperature of the temperature control device 2 according to the sleep rhythm. A sleep rhythm calculation unit 9 for calculating a rhythm is provided, and is configured to perform temperature control according to individual differences.

[0005]

According to the present invention, since the temperature of the pillow in contact with the head is controlled according to the state of the skin temperature of the head, the progress until the deep sleep period is very smooth, and the required time is very short. Becomes shorter. In addition, in overnight sleep, the temperature of the pillow in contact with the head is changed according to the sleep rhythm, and in each cycle, the temperature gradually decreases in the light sleep period, but in the deep sleep period, The temperature is controlled so that the temperature rises shortly before the deep sleep period so as not to cause the overcooling phenomenon caused by the inability to control the body temperature. Further, in consideration of the phenomenon that the rem rhythm causes a slight phase delay every day, the cycle of the temperature change is controlled so that the phase is slightly delayed every day.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a skin temperature detecting unit comprising a temperature sensor for detecting the skin temperature of the head of a human body, and may be any means for detecting the temperature, such as a thermistor or a thermocouple. Reference numeral 2 denotes a temperature control device that adjusts the temperature of the head of the human body by using an electronic heating or heat absorbing portion using the Peltier effect or the like. Reference numeral 3 denotes a temperature detection unit, which may be any means for detecting the temperature, such as a thermistor or a thermocouple, and detects the temperature of the temperature control device 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes a determination unit. Output signals of the skin temperature detection unit 1 and the temperature detection unit 3 of the temperature control device 2 are input to the determination unit 4, and the control unit 5 controls the temperature control device 2 based on these. Control properly.

Here, the relationship between sleep depth and skin temperature in summer is as shown in FIG. That is, at the time of awakening, the temperature difference between the parts is large, and is in the range of about 33 to 37 ° C. However, as sleep deepens, the temperature difference between the sites decreases, and st. 3 or st. In the deep sleep period of No. 4, it converged to the range of 34.5 ° C to 36.5 ° C. In particular, the temperature of the head decreases as the sleep deepens, and reaches 35 ± 0.5 ° C. during the deep sleep period. Therefore, in this embodiment, the head skin temperature is in the range of 35 ± 0.5 ° C.
By controlling the temperature control device 2, it is possible to smoothly sleep and to ensure good-quality sleep.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a sleep rhythm timer 6 outputs a timer signal indicating the rhythm of REM sleep and non-REM sleep. The output signal of the sleep rhythm timer 6 is input to the determination unit 4. Thereby, the temperature of the temperature control device 2 is controlled to be slightly lowered during the light sleep period, and is controlled so as to gradually increase from shortly before shifting to the deep sleep period to the end of the REM period, and this is repeated every cycle. .
Since the cycle of REM sleep and non-REM sleep is determined to be about 80 to 110 minutes, it is controlled repeatedly by the output signal of the timer 6 for sleep rhythm.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 7 denotes a remrhythm timer for outputting a signal indicating a phase delay of the remrhythm according to the day. As shown in FIG. 5, the appearance time zone of REM sleep is slightly delayed every day and has a rhythm of about a half-month cycle. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the phase shift is generated in the temperature change pattern for each cycle by the rem rhythm timer 7, thereby eliminating the phase difference between the sleep rhythm and the temperature change pattern on a daily basis. .

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, the sleep rhythm is determined by detecting the biological signal capable of determining the sleep rhythm by the biological signal detector 8 and performing the arithmetic processing by the sleep rhythm calculator 9. As a result, a signal corresponding to the sleep rhythm is obtained, so that the sleep rhythm timer 6 and the rem rhythm timer 7 become unnecessary. Further, it is possible to perform control according to the sleep rhythm of the individual for each individual.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a fifth embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, a forehead temperature detecting unit 10 for detecting a forehead temperature as a biological signal capable of determining a sleep rhythm is provided, and this is also used as a skin temperature detecting unit. The relationship between the forehead temperature and the sleep depth is as shown in FIG. 8 and the correlation is high, and the forehead temperature is higher than the sleep rhythm by 10 to
A phase shift (delay) of 20 minutes occurs, but this phase can be corrected by calculation to estimate the sleep rhythm.

[0012]

According to the sleeping pillow of the first aspect, since the surface temperature of the skin of the head is detected and the surface temperature of the pillow is controlled, there is an effect that a deep sleep can be ensured smoothly. In the sleep pillow according to the second aspect, since the head skin temperature is set in a temperature range in which deep sleep can be easily obtained, there is an effect that the deep sleep can be more smoothly ensured. Furthermore, the sleep pillow according to the third or fourth aspect has the effect of providing good sleep because the temperature of the sleep pillow is changed in accordance with the sleep rhythm even during overnight sleep. Furthermore, in the sleep pillow according to the fifth aspect, since a biological signal related to the sleep rhythm is detected and the sleep rhythm is calculated based on the biological signal, the sleep pillow is individually set in accordance with the sleep rhythm of the individual. There is an effect that the temperature of the pillow can be controlled, and even better sleep can be provided even during one night's sleep.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between sleep depth and skin temperature.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of control corresponding to a delay in rem rhythm.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a relationship between forehead temperature and sleep depth.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Skin temperature detection part 2 Temperature control device 3 Temperature detection part 4 Judgment part 5 Control part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A47G 9/10

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A temperature control device having a heat generating portion or a heat absorbing portion for adjusting the temperature of the head, a temperature detecting portion detecting a temperature of the temperature controlling device, and a skin detecting a skin surface temperature of the head. A sleep pillow, comprising: a temperature detection unit; a determination unit that determines a temperature detected by the two detection units; and a control unit that controls the temperature of the temperature control device according to an output of the determination unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to adjust a skin surface temperature of the head detected by the skin temperature detector to a range of 35 ± 0.5 ° C. Item 7. The sleeping pillow according to item 1. 3. The sleep pillow according to claim 1, further comprising a sleep rhythm timer for changing a temperature of the temperature control device according to sleep rhythms of REM sleep and non-REM sleep. 4. The sleep pillow according to claim 3, further comprising a rem rhythm timer for outputting a phase delay according to the day of the rem rhythm. 5. A biological signal detecting section for detecting a biological signal related to a sleep rhythm, and a sleep rhythm based on a biological signal from the biological signal detecting section for changing a temperature of a temperature control device in accordance with the sleep rhythm. The sleep pillow according to claim 1, further comprising a sleep rhythm calculating unit that calculates the sleep rhythm.