One of the best compliments someone can give to a new discovery is, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

I just read about a new research tool which deserves that compliment.

A group of scientists have recently published a paper in the journal PLOS ONE which describes a simple way to measure sleep quality.

Their simple idea could make research studies on the influence of ASMR on sleep quality much easier than current research methods.

This new method is so simple that I can describe it in two words:

Breathing analysis.

Don’t visualize tubes inserted into nostrils or mechanical pinwheels attached to someone’s mouth to measure air flow.

Just visualize one thing: a microphone.

And the microphone does not contact the person, so visualize someone sleeping while a sensitive microphone sits nearby and records their breathing sounds.

The audio recordings could even be done at home.

The recorded breathing sounds are then analyzed with computer algorithms and translated  into sleep data such as; total sleep time, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset time, and arousal index.

The overall sleep data can indicate sleep quality, snoring severity, and also the sleep disorder known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

I also like that they did not invent a complicated name for their new method like “morpheozephyrometer” or something as arcane.

They simply named the method: Breath Sound Analysis, or BSA for short.

If you are not yet convinced about how simple this method is then let me describe the current gold standard for collecting sleep data, it is called polysomnography, or PSG for short.

PSG works by connecting the patient to several electrodes and contact sensors to collect data for several tests which usually include electroencephalography
(EEG), electrooculography (EOG), electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography (ECG), and respiratory activity.

Of course, all of this testing with PSG requires an overnight visit to a sleep clinic.

PSG is more costly, more invasive, and requires much more technical expertise than the new BSA method.

The link at the end of this post will take you to the publication which compares this new method with the current gold standard method.

So a key tool of the ASMR artist, the sensitive microphone, may also be a future key tool of the ASMR researcher.

Click HERE to read the full research article comparing the new BSA method with the PSG method to measure sleep quality.

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