An unsupervised transfer learning algorithm for sleep monitoring

TL;DR

This paper presents an unsupervised transfer learning algorithm using multivariate hidden Markov models for robust sleep/wake detection from multisensor data, especially during health disruptions like viral infections.

Contribution

It introduces a novel adaptive, unsupervised transfer learning method that accurately detects sleep states without prior labels, even during disrupted sleep patterns.

Findings

Successfully detects sleep/wake states during respiratory infection disruptions

Pre-symptomatic sleep features predict infection status with high accuracy

Algorithm enhances automated sleep assessment in ambulatory settings

Abstract

Objective: To develop multisensor-wearable-device sleep monitoring algorithms that are robust to health disruptions affecting sleep patterns. Methods: We develop an unsupervised transfer learning algorithm based on a multivariate hidden Markov model and Fisher's linear discriminant analysis, adaptively adjusting to sleep pattern shift by training on dynamics of sleep/wake states. The proposed algorithm operates, without requiring a priori information about true sleep/wake states, by establishing an initial training set with hidden Markov model and leveraging a taper window mechanism to learn the sleep pattern in an incremental fashion. Our domain-adaptation algorithm is applied to a dataset collected in a human viral challenge study to identify sleep/wake periods of both uninfected and infected participants. Results: The algorithm successfully detects sleep/wake sessions in subjects whose sleep patterns are disrupted by respiratory infection (H3N2 flu virus). Pre-symptomatic features based on the detected periods are found to be strongly predictive of both infection status (AUC = 0.844) and infection onset time (AUC = 0.885), indicating the effectiveness and usefulness of the algorithm. Conclusion: Our method can effectively detect sleep/wake states in the presence of sleep pattern shift. Significance: Utilizing integrated multisensor signal processing and adaptive training schemes, our algorithm is able to capture key sleep patterns in ambulatory monitoring, leading to better automated sleep assessment and prediction.