Nocturnal respiration pattern of healthy people as a hint for sleep state detection

Sleep state detection is important to distinguish between a healthy sleep and sleep disorders. Common sleep state analysis methods consist of identifying signals of EEG, EOG, or EMG etc. that can only be assessed in sleep laboratories. The respiration rate and pattern are also affected by the sleep states but are not included in the sleep state analysis method. Since sleep is very important for the recreation of humans, we assume that sleep is mirroring the strain of the day and the general health condition. In our research, we identified a certain respiration rate pattern during sleep in 5 out of 17 healthy persons that might be an identifier for sleep states or for interactions of daytime activity and sleep. Therefore, we introduce this new respiration pattern as "pumping breathing" and compare it with other known respiration patterns.