Sleep
quality plays an essential role in human health and has become
an index for assessing physical health. Self-powered, sensitive, noninvasive,
comfortable, and low-cost sleep monitoring sensors for monitoring
sleep behavior are still in high demand. Here, a pressure-sensitive,
noninvasive, and comfortable smart pillow is developed based on a
flexible and breathable triboelectric nanogenerator (FB-TENG) sensor
array, which can monitor head movement in real time during sleep.
The FB-TENG is based on flexible and breathable porous poly(dimethylsiloxane)
(PDMS) with a fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) powder and exhibits
pressure sensitivity and durability. The electrical output of the
FB-TENG is further optimized by modifying the porous structure and
the FEP powder. Combining the FB-TENG and the flexible printed circuit
(FPC), a self-powered pressure sensor array is fabricated to realize
touch sensing and motion track monitoring. The smart pillow is formed
by laying the self-powered pressure sensor array on an ordinary pillow
to realize real-time monitoring of the head position in a static state
and head movement trajectory in a dynamic state during sleep. Additionally,
the smart pillow also has an early warning function for falling out
of bed. This work not only provides a viable sensing device for sleep
monitoring but also could be extended to real-time monitoring of some
diseases, such as brain diseases and cervical spondylosis, in the
future. It is expected to introduce a practical strategy in the real-time
mobile healthcare field for disease management.
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