OPTICAL SCAN SYSTEM FOR ENCODING AND TABULATION OF VISUALLY SCORED SLEEP DATA

A system for computer-assisted encoding, tabulation and analysis of visually scored sleep data is presented. The main features of the system are: 1. (1) The use of computer-readable optical scan sheets for direct encoding of the sleep data. This eliminates the need for a separate transcription and/or key-punching operation. 2. (2) The development of a visually scored data base, organized by NREM and REM periods, which contains all items of visually scored data indexed by time and/or page of occurrence in the sleep record. The advantages of this new system are: (a) the low cost per night operation; (b) the facilitation of analysis of cycle phenomena and testing of new hypotheses that would usually involved retabulation of the data; and (c) the facilitation of analysis of real-time correlates of visually scored sleep stages. © 1979.