Interactive Exhibits
Models you can operate. Set the inputs, step through the simulation, and watch a mechanism behave rather than reading a description of it. Each exhibit states plainly which parts follow from the underlying physiology and which are assumptions laid on top. Each one can be embedded on another site free of charge; the code is at the foot of every exhibit page.
Two processes, one sleeper
Sleepiness is not one quantity but the distance between two: a pressure that builds while you are awake, and a clock that sets how much pressure it takes to put you under. Move the bedtime, try to nap, lose a night — and watch why six in the morning feels better than four.
Open exhibitWhy less time in bed produces more sleep
Ten hours in bed, five hours asleep. Set your own bedtime and wake time, watch the window shrink to fit the sleep, then step through the weeks as it grows back fifteen minutes at a time. Four steps, one bar each — built to be understood in a clinic visit.
Open exhibitThe airway closes, and four signals find out at different times
Between the back of the nose and the top of the larynx there is no bone holding the airway open — only muscle, and sleep turns the muscle down. Choose a mild, moderate or severe airway, set the arousal threshold, the sleep stage and which way the sleeper is lying, then watch the EEG, the airflow, the chest belt and the oximeter disagree about when the event happened — and about what it cost. Then put the CPAP mask on and watch the airway held open from the inside.
Open exhibitBreathing during sleep, breath by breath
One loop keeps you breathing all night: the throat, the chest and belly, the blood and the brain. Start with a normal night, then close the airway with a button and watch the chest pull, the oxygen fall and a brief wake up open the throat again. Switch to obstructive sleep apnea, mild to severe, or central sleep apnea, and try CPAP and the other treatments. A section for clinicians adds heart failure breathing, high altitude, opioid pain pills and the loop's settings.
Open exhibitNote:These are simulations built to explain mechanisms. They are not treatment plans, and they are not predictions about any individual's sleep.