IMPORTANCE OF BODY BALANCE DURING SLEEP: COMPARISON OF FLAT AND TRANSFORMING BEDS

Abstract

Body imbalance is one cause of sleep disorders. If one continues to sleep in an unbalanced state, various diseases, as well as headaches and stress, may occur. Some studies have been conducted to solve body imbalance during sleep, but most have used spring mattresses, and because body pressure varies by user, limitations exist for balancing pressure with this type of mattress. In our study, we investigated sleep quality using a transforming bed that conformed to the body and a flat bed that did not conform, considering user body pressure on both. We evaluated sleep quality with polysomnography and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Korean version (PSQI–K) for 30 participants. Polysomnography showed that the ratio of delta and alpha waves in flat bed sleep was high; the ratio of theta waves was higher in transforming bed sleep than it was in flat bed sleep. The PSQI–K showed that most participants had a lower sleep index when using the transforming bed than when using the flat bed. Thus, we confirmed that sleep quality using a transforming bed was better than that of a flat bed. Therefore, considering body balance during sleep can help improve sleep quality.