Using activity-based rest disturbance as a metric of sleep apnea

An implantable cardiac device comprising:

• an activity sensor to sense a patient's activity;
• a processor to confirm that the patient is at rest based on the patient's activity and while the patient is resting, to detect one or more sleep disturbances that occur when the patient's activity rises above a threshold for less than a preset time limit;
• and
• a memory to store disturbance data pertaining to the sleep disturbances detected by the processor.

An implantable cardiac device comprising:

• activity detection means for detecting when a patient's activity rises above a preset threshold;
• timing means for timing a duration that the patient's activity is above the preset threshold;
• and
• identification means for identifying the patient's activity as sleep disturbance in an event that the patient's activity is above the preset threshold for less than a time limit.

An implantable and programmable cardiac device having a memory and a processor, the cardiac device being programmed to perform tasks comprising:

• detecting a heightened level of patient activity while the patient is at rest;
• timing a duration of the heightened level of patient activity;
• and
• in an event that the duration is less than a predefined time limit, identifying the heightened level of patient activity as sleep disturbance.

A method implemented by an implantable cardiac device, comprising:

• detecting a heightened level of patient activity while the patient is at rest;
• timing a duration of the heightened level of patient activity;
• and
• in an event that the duration is less than a predefined time limit, identifying the heightened level of patient activity as sleep disturbance.

A method comprising:

• determining that a patient is at rest;
• and
• while the patient is at rest,
• monitoring an instantaneous activity signal indicative of a patient's activity;
• detecting when the instantaneous activity signal exceeds a threshold;
• timing a duration that the instantaneous activity signal exceeds the threshold;
• and
• in an event that the instantaneous activity signal exceeds the threshold for less than a preset time, recording the patient's activity as a sleep disturbance.

A method comprising:

• administering multiple different pacing therapies to treat sleep apnea using an implantable cardiac device, such that each pacing therapy is administered for an evaluation timeframe;
• compiling sleep disturbance metrics pertaining to sleep disturbances detected during each evaluation timeframe;
• and
• analyzing the sleep disturbance metrics to evaluate how effective the different pacing therapies are at treating the sleep apnea.