Bed having features for controlling heating of a bed to reduce health risk of a sleeper

1 . A system with features to change skin temperature of a sleeper of a bed, the system comprising:

a bed having a mattress;

one or more temperature sensors, each sensor configured to:

sense a temperature for the sleeper; and

transmit, to a controller, temperature readings;

the controller comprising a processor and memory, the controller configured to:

receive, from each of the temperature sensors, temperature readings;

determine a first heart-rate variability (HRV) metric for the sleeper;

determine that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has a cardiac risk greater than a threshold value;

responsive to determining that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has the cardiac risk greater than the threshold value, send to a heating subsystem, based on the received temperature readings, first instructions to initiate a first warming process that raises a distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper;

determine a second HRV metric for the sleeper after initiation of the first warming process;

determine that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value, send to the heating subsystem, second instructions to initiate a second warming process that raises the distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper; and

the heating subsystem comprising a heating element that, when engaged, can raise the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system lowers cardiac risk of the sleeper due to raising the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine one or more sleep-parameters of the sleeper; and

modulate the warming process based on the determined sleep-parameters.

4 . The system of claim 3 , wherein the sleep-parameters are each of the group consisting of skin temperature, presence state, awake/asleep state, rapid eye movement (REM)/non-REM (NREM) state, REM/NREM light sleep/NREM deep sleep, sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep fragmentation, gross body movement, and time-to-awaken.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to:

determine a posture of the sleeper;

generate the first instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper; and

generate the second instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper.

6 . A system with features to increase distal temperature of a sleeper of a bed, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from each of one or more temperature sensors, temperature readings for the sleeper;

determining that the sleeper is in the bed;

determining a first heart-rate variability (HRV) metric for the sleeper;

determining that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has a cardiac risk greater than a threshold value;

responsive to determining that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has the cardiac risk greater than the threshold value, sending to a heating subsystem, based on based on the received temperature readings, first instructions to initiate a first warming process that raises a distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper, wherein the heating subsystem comprising a heating element that, when engaged, can raise the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper;

determining a second HRV metric for the sleeper after initiation of the first warming process;

determining that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value, sending to the heating subsystem, second instructions to initiate a second warming process that raises the distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the system lowers cardiac risk of the sleeper due to raising the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper.

8 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the operations further comprise:

determining one or more sleep-parameters of the sleeper; and

modulating the warming process based on the determined sleep-parameters.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the sleep-parameters are each of the group consisting of skin temperature, presence state, awake/asleep state, rapid eye movement (REM)/non-REM (NREM) state, REM/NREM light sleep/NREM deep sleep, sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep fragmentation, gross body movement, and time-to-awaken.

10 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the operation comprise:

determining a posture of the sleeper;

generating the first instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper; and

generating the second instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper.

11 . A method to change skin temperature of a sleeper of a bed, the method comprising:

receiving, from each of one or more temperature sensors, temperature readings for the sleeper;

determining that the sleeper is in the bed;

determining a first heart-rate variability (HRV) metric for the sleeper;

determining that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has a cardiac risk greater than a threshold value;

responsive to determining that the first HRV metric indicates that the sleeper has the cardiac risk greater than the threshold value, sending to a heating subsystem, based on the determination that the sleeper is in the bed and based on the received temperature readings, first instructions to initiate a first warming process that raises a distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper, wherein the heating subsystem comprising a heating element that, when engaged, can raise the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper;

determining a second HRV metric for the sleeper after initiation of the first warming process;

determining that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value; and

responsive to determining that the second HRV metric indicates that the first warming process did not reduce the cardiac risk to less than the threshold value, sending to the heating subsystem, second instructions to initiate a second warming process that raises the distal temperature of the sleeper more than a proximal temperature of the sleeper.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the method lowers cardiac risk of the sleeper due to raising the distal temperature of the sleeper more than the proximal temperature of the sleeper.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining one or more sleep-parameters of the sleeper; and

modulating the warming process based on the determined sleep-parameters.

14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the method comprises:

determining a posture of the sleeper;

generating the first instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper; and

generating the second instructions based on the determined posture of the sleeper.