This phone app  tells you how well you slept -- or not.

Bangalore, September 17 2018:How many of us can honestly say we enjoy a good night's sleep -- regularly?  There's  the neighbourhood noise and the polluted air -- and then there are the  worries and tensions of our own lives.   Shakespeare called sleep the 'balm of hurt minds' -- it's a balm we  could really use.

A young Indian researcher at  the University of Washington in the US -- and the winner last week,  of the Marconi Young Scholar Award -- Rajalakshmi Nandakumar -- has been researching sleep and the disorder known as sleep apnea  for 5 years.  Apnea solutions involved   strapping  on  sensors  and  connecting wires -- till now.   

Rajalakshmi has created what is arguably the first contactless solution: and she did it using a smartphone and its loudspeaker system, to  beam  inaudible  sound signals at the sleeping subject, much like a  sonar system  to detect activities like movement and respiration.  The result of her PhD work has  been licensed to  a  medical solutions company, ResMed,  who have put out a free app "SleepScore"  for Android and iPhone that helps individuals to monitor their sleep quality. It's not a cure in itself -- but it's a first step to  sound sleep. Sweet dreams!