Evaluating a Personal Stress Monitoring System

Now-a-days, Life is generally much more stressful than in the past. Stress is the word that we use when we feel that we are overloaded mentally in our thoughts and wonder whether we can really cope with those placed upon us. Sometimes, stress gets us going and they are good for us but at other times, it could be the cause to undermine both our mental and physical health. The way we respond to a challenge can be considered as a kind of stress. Part of our response to a challenge is physiological and affects our own physical state. When we are faced with a challenge or a threat, our body releases some resources to protect us against them - either to get away as fast as we can, or to fight against them. This fight-or-flight response is our body\u27s sympathetic nervous system reacting to a stressful event. During this response, our body produces larger quantities of the chemicals such as cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, which triggers a higher heart rate, heightened muscle preparedness, sweating, and alertness. All these factors help us to protect ourselves in a dangerous or challenging situation. But based on the frequency of stress facing by a person, these changes may affect his or her health negatively. In order to evaluate an individual\u27s stress, I worked on this thesis in developing a personal stress monitoring system to capture the stress undergoing by an individual in his or her daily life