Patent ID: 9566032
Date: 2017-02-14
CPC Classifications: A61B

Claim:
1. A method of providing a graphical representation of sleep quality, comprising: obtaining ECG data for a patient; obtaining a plurality of N-N intervals from the ECG data by processing the ECG data to identify a plurality of normal beats and extracting the plurality of N-N intervals based on the identified normal beats; calculating a plurality of spectral densities based on the plurality of N-N intervals, wherein each spectral density is associated with one of a plurality of successive time windows and is calculated based on certain ones of the N-N intervals associated with the one of the plurality of successive time windows; and generating the graphical representation of sleep quality using the plurality of spectral densities; wherein the obtaining steps, the calculating step and the generating step are performed in a sleep assessment module of a computer processing unit, wherein the graphical representation is a plot having a time axis and a frequency axis, wherein each of the plurality of time windows has an associated mid value representing a middle of the time window such that each spectral density is associated with one of the mid values, wherein each spectral density is used to create an image in the graphical representation that is positioned in the graphical representation along the time axis at a time corresponding to the mid value associated with the spectral density, wherein each image in the graphical representation has a length along the frequency axis equal to a frequency range of the spectral densities, and wherein each image is color coded in a manner wherein a particular color at each frequency value along the frequency axis is determined based on an associated power at that frequency from the spectral density used to create the image.