Deep sleep
Many people, especially the elderly, suffer from abnormal sleep. In particular, the stages of deep sleep become shorter and shallower with age. Deep sleep is important for brain regeneration and memory, and it also has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system.
SleepLoop, a newly designed mobile phone system. It can help with deep sleep through auditory stimulation of the brain. The device tracks when a person enters slow-wave brain activity.
It stimulates the auditory signal, which helps synchronize neurons and amplify slow waves.

Improve deep sleep
The brain waves that characterize deep sleep are improved by playing precisely timed sounds through the earphone during sleep.
As part of the Sleep Loop project, researchers in Zurich have developed a mobile phone system that can be used at home.
It aims to promote deep sleep through auditory stimulation of the brain.
The Sleep Loop system consists of a headband. It is placed on it while sleeping and used during the night. This headband contains electrodes and a microchip that continuously measures the brain activity of the sleeping person. The data on the microchip is analyzed using custom software.
As soon as a person sleeps, they show slow waves in brain activity, which is characteristic of deep sleep. The system generates a short hearing signal (clicking). It helps in synchronizing neurons and amplifying slow waves. What makes the solution unique is that the sleeping person is not consciously aware of this sound during deep sleep.

First clinical study
Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University Hospital of Zurich at the Neuromotor Control Laboratory conducted a clinical study with this device for the first time.
The studies involved equipping participants between the ages of 60 and 80 with a SleepLoop system that they had to work on their own. The system is operated independently by users with little technical experience.
They used the device every night for four weeks. Auditory stimulation was performed at night for two weeks and no stimulation was performed for two weeks afterwards. It involved equipping participants between the ages of 60 and 80 with a SleepLoop system that they had to work on their own. The system is operated independently by users with little technical experience.
Auditory stimulation is actually possible.
The SleepLoop system emits sound at the right time to amplify the slow brain waves.
The question of whether a person reacts to a stimulus or not depends on their health throughout the day.
Researchers have used these individual differences to better predict how a person will react to an auditory stimulus. This, in turn, helps them optimize and improve the performance of SleepLoop.
Source:
“Auditory deep sleep stimulation in older adults at home: a randomized crossover trial” by Lustenberger C et al. ,2022.Communications Medicine