Wearable Nanostructured Capacitive Sensors for Multidimensional Intracranial Pressure Monitoring in Sleep Deficiency Assessment

Abstract

Sleep deficiency (SD) is a growing concern for brain health, yet objective tools to assess chronic SD are limited. Intracranial pressure (ICP), which fluctuates with circadian cycles, sleep stages, and sleep events like obstructive sleep apnea, offers a promising biomarker for assessing SD. However, noninvasive ICP monitoring remains a major challenge, limiting the ability to validate this relationship. This study introduces a wearable sleep mask embedded with nanostructured capacitive sensors made from carbon nanotube-paper composites (CPC) to measure regional ICP (r-ICP) in a noninvasive manner. A single-electrode capacitance (SEC) sensing model is validated in pigs, showing correlations with ventricular ICP based on mean, respiratory (RS), and heartbeat (HB) band signals. In humans, r-ICP responses during postural changes and Valsalva maneuvers (VM) are confirmed to have physiological relevance. We further investigate r-ICP patterns in a nap study to explore potential markers of sleep quality. Machine learning (ML) analysis of nap studies reveals correlations between r-ICP patterns and chronic SD. These results demonstrate the potential of this non-invasive platform for monitoring sleep physiology and broader neurological health.