Granted Patent B2

US 12,623,047 · App. 18/380,403 · Granted May 12, 2026

Inventor: Alexander Poltorak (Pomona, NY)

Assignee: NeuroLight, Inc.

A61M21/02A61M2021/0027A61M2021/0044A61M2205/3553A61M2205/507A61M2230/10

Abstract

Claims (44)

1 . A system for facilitating sleep, comprising:

a database comprising a plurality of database records, each database record being associated with a respective human sleep stage of a plurality of human sleep stages, and each database record defining a brain electrical activity waveform associated with the respective human sleep stage;

a neurostimulator configured to stimulate a sleeping human subject with a sensory stimulus adapted to achieve brain entrainment of the sleeping human subject, and alter a human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject; and

at least one automated processor, configured to:

determine a current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject;

monitor a progress of the sleeping human subject through a sleep cycle comprising a defined sequence of sleep stages based on current human sleep stage;

modify the progress of the sleeping human subject through the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of human sleep stages dependent on a deviation of the current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages, to a portion of the sequence of sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage within the defined sequence of sleep stages;

define a stimulation pattern of the sensory stimulus for the sleeping human subject, dependent on the current human sleep stage, the progress of the sleeping human through the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of human sleep stages, and at least one database record of the database; and

control the neurostimulator to deliver the sensory stimulus based on at least the defined stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject.

2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the stimulation pattern comprises at least two concurrent modulated signals.

3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein the at least two concurrent modulated signals comprise at least two different audio signals, together configured to generate binaural beats.

4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of database records are derived from brain electrical activity measurements acquired during at least one human sleep cycle.

5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one automated processor is further configured to define a new database record of the database by monitoring electroencephalographic signals from a sleeping human over a sleep cycle.

6 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a memory configured to store instructions of a sleep app, configured to be executed by the at least one automated processor, the sleep app being downloadable and upgradable from a remote server.

7 . The system according to claim 6 , further comprising a user interface configured to control an adaptively defined sequence of the human sleep stages, and the deviation of the current human sleep stage of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages comprises an awakening.

8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one automated processor is configured to phase synchronize the defined stimulation pattern with a brain electrical activity of the sleeping human subject detected with an electroencephalographic sensor.

9 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises a multimodal sensory stimulator.

10 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises a visual stimulator and an audio stimulator.

11 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein each defined brain electrical activity waveform is derived from at least one recording of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human, processed using a statistical decision analysis.

12 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the neurostimulator comprises at least one light emitting diode disposed in a sleep mask configured to be illuminated proximate to the sleeping human subject's eyes.

13 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one sensor configured to determine at least an eye movement, and the at least one automated processor is configured to determine the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject based on an output of the at least one sensor.

14 . The system according to claim 1 , further comprising providing at least one electroencephalographic sensor, and the at least one automated processor is configured to determine the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject based on an output of the at least one electroencephalographic sensor.

15 . A system for facilitating sleep, comprising:

a database configured to store a plurality of database records associated with respective human sleep stages, each database record defining a brain electrical activity waveform associated with a respective human sleep stage of a plurality of different sleep stages;

a sensor configured to determine a current human sleep stage of a sleeping human subject;

at least one automated processor configured to:

monitor a current sleep stage and a progress of the sleeping human subject through a defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages;

determine a deviation between the current sleep stage and an expected current sleep stage according to the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages;

modify the progress of the sleeping human subject through the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages dependent on at least the determined deviation, to a respective sleep stage within the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage; and

define a stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject, dependent on the current sleep stage, the progress of the sleeping human subject through the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages, and at least one database record of the database corresponding to a next sleep stage in the defined sequence of the plurality of different sleep stages; and

a neurostimulator configured to stimulate a sleeping human subject with a sensory stimulus, dependent on at least the defined stimulation pattern for the sleeping human subject, the sensory stimulus being configured to achieve brain entrainment of the sleeping human subject.

16 . The system according to claim 15 , wherein the stimulation pattern comprises at least two concurrent modulated audio signals together configured to generate binaural beats.

17 . The system according to claim 15 , further comprising time synchronizing the defined stimulation pattern with a brain electrical activity of the sleeping human subject detected using an electroencephalographic sensor.

18 . The system according to claim 15 , wherein the sensor is configured to determine at least a movement of the sleeping human subject, and wherein the current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject is determined based on the at least one sensor.

19 . A system to facilitate sleep in a sleeping human subject, comprising:

a user device having at least one programmable processor and a sleep app executable on the at least one programmable processor,

the sleep app including:

instructions for determining a current sleep stage of the sleeping human subject;

instructions for selecting a record in a database storing a plurality of records in dependence on at least the current sleep stage, each record of the database defining a respective waveform derived from brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor,

instructions for monitoring a progress of the sleeping human subject through a defined sequence of sleep stages based on current human sleep stage; and

instructions for modifying the progress of the sleeping human subject through the sequence of sleep stages dependent on a deviation of the sleeping human subject from the sleep cycle comprising the defined sequence of stages, to a portion of the sequence of sleep stages corresponding to the current sleep stage within the defined sequence of sleep stages; and

instructions for stimulating the sleeping human subject with at least one stimulus modulated with the waveform defined in the selected record,

wherein the selected waveform is configured to entrain the brain of the sleeping subject facilitating sleep in the sleeping human subject.

20 . The system of claim 19 , wherein each record of the database defines a subset of a set of components of the respective waveform, the subset selectively corresponding to respective sleep stages, derived from recordings of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor, the components being extracted from the recordings of brainwaves of at least one sleeping human donor using at least one of a principal component analysis (PCA), a correspondence analysis (CA), a factor analysis, a K-means clustering, a non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), a sparse PCA, a non-linear PCA, a robust PCA, an independent component analysis (ICA), a network component analysis, and a singular spectral analysis.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (400)