An article by McKinsey found that up to 45% of the world’s population regularly do not get enough sleep. Both sleep loss and sleep deprivation have detrimental effects not only on the health & well-being of the people suffering from it, but also on the macroeconomic side as well. The economic costs caused by sleep deprivation is estimated to be USD 680 billion a year in five OECD countries while reduced employee efficiency due to sleep loss can cost companies anywhere from USD 1300 to USD 3000 per employee.
The pandemic has further exacerbated the issue as remote work or working may also negatively affect people’s sleep as a Fast Company article suggests. The reasons have been attributed to: irregular schedules, lack of clear separation between sleep space and work space, increased screen time, etc. While this problem would be detrimental under normal circumstances, when compounded with an ongoing pandemic it will potentially cause far more harm than it ever needs to be. In addition, the compounded complex issues brought forth by the pandemic also exacerbates underlying issues that will negatively impact a person’s health. After all, if a person cannot truly rest; how will they keep their health?
In this edition of the InnoVEX Editorial, we explore the innovations that might help people sleep more restfully both to maintain or recover their health. Whether for busy people who need to get the most out of a sleep or for those with a certain underlying condition who cannot get the full benefit of their sleep.
High Resting Efficiency
Conventional wisdom suggests 7 to 8 hours to be the optimal length of sleep, but current lifestyles might reduce the time available for sleeping. At the same time, the blue light emitted by modern mobile devices have also been proven to negatively affect a person’s sleep. However, specially designed lights might be the answer to providing a more restful sleep instead of a restless one. For example, Applied Vision Optics LAB has developed a novel hypnotic lighting system to help increase sleep efficiency.
The lightning system uses pulse width modulating (PWM) technology for correlated color temperature (CCT) control of sleep lights. PWM is used to adjust and control the spectrum intensity of polychromatic LED to realize LED Colour mixing, which conforms to CCT, illumination, uniformity and other parameters in the design. The devices can also reduce the time needed to fall asleep compared to the commercially available night light or sleeping in the darkness.
Managing Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea has affected approximately 100 million people globally and becomes one of the causes for multiple chronic and dangerous complications. With the common symptom of loud snoring, snorting, or being constantly tired; people who actually suffer from sleep apnea might not know that they do. This chronic underlying condition becomes the focus of Soteria Biotech and their product: the Soteria One Point Zero.
Soteria One Point Zero is a software medical device designed to display and analyze head and neck medical images for the airway flow characteristics including flow velocity and pressure within the airway. The results can be used in conjunction with the patients’ clinical history to assist clinicians to evaluate whether the airway is obstructed and at which location. Soteria’s services offer specialized, customized fluid dynamics and cloud computations. The software is based on a patented proprietary algorithm that is easy to use, especially suitable for researchers or anyone in a time-constrained environment.
Learn more about Applied Vision Optics LAB, Soteria Biotech, and other InnoVEX Online 2021 Exhibitors here.
Look forward to more updates from InnoVEX
Operating for the whole year, the InnoVEX ONLINE platform is active 24/7 and visitors can check out the exhibitors at any time and even contact them directly through the PinChat function built into the platform. There will also be news from InnoVEX regularly that will be published and sent via the weekly InnoVEX Tech Startup News digital newsletter. The content will also include highlighted exhibitors, pavilions, and other features of InnoVEX ONLINE 2021. Subscribe to the InnoVEX Tech Startup News here and never miss an update from InnoVEX.
InnoVEX 2022 is now open for Registration
In addition to the online platform, the 2022 InnoVEX onsite exhibition will take place in Taipei, Taiwan from May 24-27,2022. Online registration for both the hybrid exhibition or the InnoVEX ONLINE platform has started for global exhibitors. For more info or registration details, please click here.