OptoSens: an Optical Sensor Based Mask for Sleep Quality Monitoring

Adequate sleep is crucial for metabolic, emotional, and cognitive functions, with poor sleep being associated with various health issues, including decreased athletic performance and slower recovery. Traditional sleep monitoring methods, such as polysomnography, are highly accurate but costly and require clinical settings, limiting their accessibility for athletes. This work introduces OptoSens, a novel, non-invasive sleep monitoring system that uses optical sensing to track eye movements and classify sleep stages, including awake, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM, without the need for complex or invasive equipment. The system was initially parameterized by correlating the sleep stages detected by a commercially available smartwatch. This approach served as a reference for the development of the classification algorithm. The performance of OptoSens was then validated across multiple users, demonstrating its ability to reliably classify sleep stages in real-world settings. While not intended as a medical device, OptoSens offers a promising alternative for continuous, non-invasive sleep monitoring, highlighting its potential for personal health monitoring, sports performance optimization, and sleep research. For athletes, monitoring sleep quality with OptoSens could provide valuable insights into recovery patterns and performance enhancement, offering a practical tool for improving both physical and cognitive well-being.