Patent ID: 8568330

Claim:
A method for determining a composite stress index for an individual using a computer, the method comprising: providing heart beat data at the computer the heart beat data representative of the individual's cardiac activity during the time interval of interest; determining one or more cardiac parameters based on the heart beat data, each cardiac parameter associated with a corresponding characteristic of the individual's cardiac activity during the time interval of interest; determining a cardiac stress index for the individual based on the one or more cardiac parameters; providing sleep history data at a computer, the sleep history data comprising one or more sleep onset times and one or more awakening times for an individual during a time interval of interest; determining one or more sleep parameters based on the sleep history data, each sleep parameter associated with a corresponding characteristic of the individual's sleep during the time interval of interest; determining a sleep stress index for the individual based on the one or more sleep parameters; and determining a composite stress index based at least in part on one or more of the cardiac stress index and the sleep stress index.