Written by: Larry D Frost April 2, 2013 The College of Engineering is pleased to announce that Professor Jovanov from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department received a Qatar National Research Fund grant for "The Development of a Clinician's Aide to Monitor and Screen for Insomnia." UAH is a part of the international team that includes Texas A&M University, Qatar, Charité Hospital, Berlin, Germany, Victoria University, Sydney, Australia, and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. The word 'insomnia' is commonly used to describe the problem of not being able to fall asleep (onset insomnia), not being able to stay asleep (maintenance insomnia) or having both of these problems. Insomnia is not a disease and can have many different causes, including worrying, poor personal habits, injuries, diseases and painful conditions. Night-time symptoms of insomnia are usually difficulty falling asleep and/or staying asleep. Daytime symptoms of insomnia include fatigue, sleepiness, lack of energy, irritability and other mood disturbances (e.g., depressed mood), poor motivation and concentration, and poor work performance. Daytime symptoms may also have negative effects on social functioning and can increase the risk of motor vehicle and work-related accidents Dr. Jovanov and his students will develop a wearable monitoring system and work with Dr. Teixeira on unobtrusive detection and modeling of arousal episodes during sleep that will be tested in clinical studies in Charité Hospital, Berlin and Victoria University Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
