Ongoing Bateman Horne Center using wearable technology to look at sleep, energy expenditure, etc.

[Dolphin]

[Note: It sounds like they have enough participants].

This is about a pilot study the Bateman Horne Center (in Utah, USA) has organised:

It is using a ring:

"Ōura is a ring-sized computer designed to assess sleep. It measures total sleep time and amount of deep and REM sleep each night and during the day it measures energy expenditure and activity."

Initial pilot study involves 20 ME/CFS patients.

https://batemanhornecenter.org/empowered-research-while-you-sleep

 

[Little Bluestem]

This sounds like they might be needing more people in the future.

Beta testers will wear the Ōura ring for 2-4 weeks. The data from the ring together with the other things they track will be collected, aggregated and analyzed on Curious. This will tell us what – if anything – needs to be tweaked for Ōura ring to be used for ME/CFS research. Then we are ready for many more patients to wear the Ōura ring.

The Oura is another one of the those %#&! devices that requires a smartphone.

 

[Keela Too]

This looks very interesting and must surely be the way forward for following up any treatment protocols.

Wonder how PACE results would have looked with all the patients wearing these? Interesting!

 

[duncan]

I am a little concerned they are studying a downstream effect.

Is there an implication that our energy deficits and cognitive deficits and weakness and vertigo, etc, are rooted in a sleep disorder?

Abnormal sleep, like pain and exhaustion and brain fog, is just another symptom.

 

[lansbergen]

Abnormal sleep, like pain and exhaustion and brain fog, is just another symptom.

Yes. I sleep like a baby now for quite some while and I am not cured.

But without good sleep one can not heal.

 

[SOC]

I am a little concerned they are studying a downstream effect.

Is there an implication that our energy deficits and cognitive deficits and weakness and vertigo, etc, are rooted in a sleep disorder?

Abnormal sleep, like pain and exhaustion and brain fog, is just another symptom.

My guess is that they are not assuming a sleep disorder is the cause of ME/CFS. It's more likely that this very small study is just a test of this particular technology as a method of gathering relevant data about the current condition of a patient. By having an easy way to collect some symptom data from a distant patient, a physician might be better able to judge the effectiveness of treatment protocols. Better than those darned after-the-fact questionnaires you get at the specialist's office once or twice a year for which you have to remember how well you slept or how active you were 6 months ago compared to now.

 

[MeSci]

Hopefully they are not talking about M.E. when they say "It measures total sleep time and amount of deep and REM sleep each night and during the day it measures energy expenditure and activity. The ring uses these parameters to learn about your sleep and your body and then it helps guide the ring wearer towards better sleep and performance."

That does sound like treating sleep problems as the primary issue.

 

[Little Bluestem]

Many of us have sleep issues. If they could be treated, that would be one less thing to deal with.