Patent ID: 8454491

Claim:
A system for inducing a subject to fall asleep, comprising: a monitor for monitoring heart rate and breathing rate of the subject; a coherence assessing device ( 130 ) coupled to the monitor ( 120 ) for assessing a degree of coherence between the heart rate and the breathing rate, wherein said degree of coherence is determined by: i. separating a breathing frequency signal component of said subject from a heart rate signal component of said subject; ii. extracting N samples from each of the breathing frequency component and heart rate components; iii. calculating said degree of coherence as: coherence = ∑ i = 0 N - 1 ⁢ respiration ⁢ ⁢ ( i ) · heartrate ⁢ ⁢ ( i ) ; and an output device coupled to the coherence assessing device for generating an output based on the degree of coherence to induce the subject to sleep.