KickSleep

Do you have insomnia and don’t understand why? Do you feel unrefreshed despite sleeping 8 hours per night? Periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD) is one of the most common causes for unexplained insomnia and sleepiness. It is caused by unconscious, repetitive leg movements during sleep.

KickSleep detects leg movements in sleep to determine if you may have PLMD.

The app uses your iPhone or IPods built in accelerometer to detect jerky leg movements in one of two ways. Attach your iPhone to either calf with an armband or place it under the bed sheet close to your feet during sleep.

Formal testing for PLMD is done with polysomnography, also known as a sleep study. This test is done during one nights sleep in a sleep lab and includes Electromyelography (EMG). EMG uses electrodes that are attached to the calves to detect leg movements in sleep.

To make sure that leg movements were accurately recorded we compared KickSleep to EMG recordings of 403 leg movements. 201 with the Iphone attached to the calf and 202 with the Iphone placed under the bed sheet. KickSleep detected 392/403 leg movements. 196/201 attached to the calf and 196/202 under the bed sheet for a combined sensitivity of 97%.