Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
m1078744
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Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by m1078744 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 12:31 am

Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum, and I have a situation that I'd love your input on. I have been trying to figure out how to record myself sleeping at night as I know that I wake up in a great deal of pain and I also never feel rested, despite the fact that I use my CPAP. I cannot utilize a webcam as I can't leave my laptop plugged in all night (it's a brand new computer and I'm worried about ruining the battery). I am trying to research alternatives, such as nanny cams or baby monitors, but I'm not coming up with a lot of options. The main thing I am having a hard time finding is a camera that has night vision and is also able to record the video so that I can share it with my sleep doctor and my other treatment team members. Have you guys found cameras that worked for this purpose and were reasonably priced?

Thank you,
Megan

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Julie
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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by Julie » Wed Oct 01, 2014 3:59 am

Not quite an answer to your question, but are you aware you can be either tested at home (a lot cheaper than in-lab testing), or else access an good (used) auto cpap and titrate yourself - with help and direction from others here? Recording may or may not be accurate as you move around, turn away from a cam overnight, possibly have many events that just don't show up, etc. etc. And have you considered that your bed might be a factor in how well you sleep? Do you have fibromyalgia or something similar? Do you take meds?

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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by JDS74 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:13 am

Megan,

How would running your laptop all night plugged in to the charges be different from charging it overnight?
I think your concern about the battery would only be correct if you tried to run it on battery alone.

Just a thought.

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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by Krelvin » Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:23 am

A Number of things.
  • You will not ruin your laptop battery having it plugged in for a few nights. It takes a lot longer for that to happen (months/years) if you don't have it setup correctly.
  • Most laptops have a plugged in ability mode which extends the battery when always plugged in (mine is both plugged in all the time and left on as well, going on 3 years now)
  • If the battery is old or worn out, it can be replaced for a lot less than you think most likely. I recently got one for my wifes laptop for under $30, some less than $15.
  • The webcam on a laptop doesn't have IR capabilities, so it can't do night vision.
  • You can get a Wireless IR webcam which doesn't require to be hardwired in (with cabling etc) The ones I use cost about $90 ea when I got them, there are many now however are under $70.
  • It will need something to record to, so you will need a running computer and software that will do the recording.
  • There are a number of reasonable software packages which will use one or more wireless webcams for streaming.
You have not provided any location in your profile so I don't know where you are located for some examples of wireless IR webcams can be found at:
Software for Recording. some examples that I have used and use all the time: There are tons of packages out there though... been a while since I have looked and since I already own the above, I have not really bothered to look.

However, as Julie said, there are things called Sleep studies where they do this and much more including being hooked up to an EEG which will provide sleep stages that you can't really get via any other means.

Getting a webcam, setting up the software and testing it so that you know it will be working takes some time but should be doable by most with the ability to figure things out. I use a lot of them for weather monitoring, some for security and one to monitor my home office to see if equipment is turned on or off remotely via my phone.
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LSAT
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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by LSAT » Wed Oct 01, 2014 6:25 am

m1078744 wrote:Hi Guys,

I am new to this forum, and I have a situation that I'd love your input on. I have been trying to figure out how to record myself sleeping at night as I know that I wake up in a great deal of pain and I also never feel rested, despite the fact that I use my CPAP. I cannot utilize a webcam as I can't leave my laptop plugged in all night (it's a brand new computer and I'm worried about ruining the battery). I am trying to research alternatives, such as nanny cams or baby monitors, but I'm not coming up with a lot of options. The main thing I am having a hard time finding is a camera that has night vision and is also able to record the video so that I can share it with my sleep doctor and my other treatment team members. Have you guys found cameras that worked for this purpose and were reasonably priced?

Thank you,
Megan
Do you really think your sleep doctor will spend 6-8 hours watching you sleep? You are lucky if you get a 15 minute appointment.

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m1078744
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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by m1078744 » Wed Oct 01, 2014 5:21 pm

Hey Guys,

So, I am not planning on showing the entire night's sleep to my doctor. This is mainly for my own personal curiosity and because when I borrowed a camera for a short time from my Dad, it did pick up a lot of periodic limb movements and some possible seizure activity. I have had sleep studies and I have had a 72-hr video EEG that picked up on seizure activity in my brain & she diagnosed me with myoclonic seizures. The camera I borrowed from my Dad wasn't able to record the entire night like I was wanting and it only would get very short snippets if I crossed certain detection 'zones' that didn't work very well for this purpose.

I know that I will have to only show the sleep doc short frames and not the entire nights sleep. There are means of using time-lapse so that the video isn't actually 6 to 8 hrs, but compresses it into a much shorter length to help get an idea of how much I'm moving during the night. We are trying to figure out if I have REM Sleep Behavior Disorder which is a question that being able to record my sleep behavior long-term could answer. I can't afford to participate in repeated sleep studies and I don't know when I will begin experiencing the signs & symptoms that my parents & friends have noted in the past.

I will look into the wireless webcam idea. I have a desktop computer that I have no issue with leaving running for long periods of time, but it's nowhere near my bedroom & it's not possible to put it in there. I don't ever leave my laptop plugged in to charge overnight and that's why I don't want to leave it running plugged in. I guess my fear of damaging the battery on it has to do with the years of having my Dad get upset with my Mom & I for leaving any electronics with batteries (computer, phone, tablets) plugged in for a longer period of time than necessary to get it charged.

Thank you guys for all of your responses. I really appreciate it.

~Megan~

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STL Mark
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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by STL Mark » Wed Oct 01, 2014 6:45 pm

Dropcam pro is a nice camera. It has an automatic night mode. There are two weeks free of data recording and a web interface for viewing it. You can extract time lapse recordings that summarize your sleep time or extract clips of interesting data.

I own 3 of the cameras and use them around the house to enhance security. For all three cameras it is about $200 per year to have the previous one week of history available online for the cameras. But during that first 2 weeks this costs you nothing. Buying from amazon.com would allow you a 30 day return policy if you saw no need for it once you were done.

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Jay Aitchsee
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Re: Trying to Record My Sleep but Need Help

Post by Jay Aitchsee » Wed Oct 01, 2014 7:19 pm

Hi Megan,
It is "relatively" easy to do what you want, with the right equipment. Many newer laptops (it won't hurt to leave it running all night) have webcam time lapse capability. If yours does, that's half the battle. If not, there is fairly inexpensive ($10) software available. If you have a windows laptop you can use the moviemaker software provided to edit your time lapse videos.

An inexpensive webcam can be used to "see" infra red by removing the infrared filter. Once the filter is removed, very little visible light, or non at all if there is an infrared source, is needed to capture video. There are how to instructables on the web and several on Youtube. To do this, you would use an inexpensive auxiliary webcam, not the built in laptop camera. Then you just take it apart, remove the filter, and put it back together. Usually about four screws, that's all there is to it. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC3kJ2zjcbc, for a start.

I used an inexpensive Microsoft LifeCam along with a low wattage red light bulb as a light source for my first videos. I usually recorded the entire night and compressed it into a video a couple minutes long. Here's a sample of about 3 hours in 30 seconds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZk-fokc9QU

Please see the links in my signature for more information. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65101&st=0&sk=t&sd=a#p607701

BTW, my sleep doctor thought the videos were great!
Jay

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