new Snore Alarm device?

[paleolith]

Does anyone have experience with this?

http://www.giantbiosensor.com/Stop-Snoring-Apnea.html

I've been trying to find such a device for quite a while, but in the past all I've found are DIY instructions. This would be great if it works. I'm probably going to try it if I don't get any negative feedback, since the price is very reasonable. If I do, I'll be happy to post the results.

Background: I know this is a bit off topic, but I don't know of any better forum to ask on. My OSA is mostly controlled with positional therapy, and I use a recording pulse oximeter to track it. My girlfriend is a very light sleeper, so my snoring bothers her quite a lot. I've been using a DVR (digital voice recorder) to record overnight sounds. Loading the recording into Adobe Audition, I can spot snoring quickly and only need to spend five or ten minutes to review a night's recording. (There are probably much cheaper options than Audition, but I have it. Being able to view the waveform rather than having to listen is critical.)

Based on the recordings and her observations, we have determined that my snoring is highly positional. In the right position, I will go all night with only a minute or two of snoring. When I snore, she can poke me and tell me to change my position, and I wake up enough to comply, and this usually works, but of course this disrupts her sleep. So I have high hopes that an effective alarm would control the snoring without putting the burden on her.

Edward

[archangle]

I've always thought there should be some sort of gadget like a shock collar that trains your brain to stop you from having apneas. After all, your brain keeps your airway open just fine when you're awake without any conscious effort on your part.

Unfortunately, there's no indication such a gadget actually works. Apparently, you can't "train" the brain to do this.

Maybe you can train your brain to stop snoring, but I'd be worried that if it worked, it would do something like make you not get any REM sleep. Maybe it would train you not to roll over on your back. You could probably figure out a different way to do this.

If your problem is snoring when you sleep on your back, have you tried the other remedies like sewing tennis balls into the back of a T-shirt?

[zoocrewphoto]

I've looked at that website, and it seems rather bogus to me. The alarm is not going to make my improve the tone of my throat. If it were that easy, doctors would be recommending this, and it would be very popular.

I am also aware that before cpap, I would stop snoring for awhile if I rolled over. I doubt it stopped my apneas, just quieted them for awhile.

What I would really like is an alarm that truly goes off and reminds me that my mask is off. This would be perfect for those times when I fall asleep while watching tv. Then I would wake up, put my mask on, and be properly treated again.

[paleolith]

Well, since no one else here seems to have tried it, I figured I'd be the guinea pig. But now it seems to be out of stock!

Yes, some of the items on that web site are clearly bogus, particularly the Nopal powder to control glucose and cholesterol. However, it appears that Giant is simply a facilitator for small manufacturers, so I'm going to refrain from judging the other products guilty by association.

I've been surprised at what the sleeping brain can be trained for. My apnea is far worse on my back than on my side. Sleep doctors do not take positional therapy seriously; if they did, they would recommend something effective, which a tennis ball is not -- too easy to sleep on, too easy to roll 3/4 onto and tilt head to nose-up position. I built a "foam backpack" from 5" thick foam (bought at JoAnn). With that on my back I absolutely could not roll onto my back, could not even roll over without sitting up. I expected to use it the rest of my life. After a couple of years, circumstances forced me to go without it for a couple of nights. To my surprise, I did not roll onto my back. That was 3-1/2 years ago. I haven't worn my device since, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've been caught sleeping on my back. Clearly it trained me not to sleep on my back, and the training has held with little or no ongoing reinforcement.

I'm sure my snoring is also much worse if I sleep on my back, but I have no records to prove it and no desire to experiment. I was married for 38 years to someone who was a deep enough sleeper that apparently my snoring seldom bothered her. She's dead, and my girlfriend now is a much lighter sleeper. Even fairly mild snoring disrupts her sleep, and the recordings I've made show that my snoring is sometimes much worse than mild. So I have the motivation to take it seriously. As mentioned in my first post, we have good observational evidence that my snoring is highly positional; when I maintain a particular position, I seldom snore. (Obviously this is not true for everyone, and just as obviously my snoring may get worse as I get older. As zoocrew points out, this thing isn't going to improve the tone of my throat.)

These two factors -- knowing that my snoring is strongly positional, and knowing that my brain allowed itself to be trained to avoid the position that makes my apnea worst, give me hope that the snore alarm would work for me. It won't work for everyone, just as many treatments that work for others don't work for me. We're all different and have to determine which solution works for each of us. And yes, maybe it is bogus ...

OK, enough preaching to the choir.

Edward

[nanwilson]

Excuse me...but would not an alarm wake up your gf as much as your snoring........?????????????????
If your snoring is positional then inmho that means you have positional apnea.......you snore when your throat and tongue collapse ,,same thing with an apnea, your throat and tongue collapse and you have an apnea. Therefore, again inmho.....a cpap machine would be the best therapy

[2 B Sleeping Soundly]

I searched and found a thread from a forum member that used to post here named 'Mars' who was looking into positional apnea. If I remember right he was doing a lot of research on the subject.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68789&p=638356#p638356

[Goofproof]

Snoring is a sleep apnea disorder.men and women commonly face a snoring problem.snoring not only affect a person who suffer from snoring,but also irritate their family members.Some anti snoring devices helps to stop snoring.

Snoring ISN'T a Sleep Apnea disorder, its a symptom, one of many. It's Sleep Apnea that needs treatment, treat sleep apnea correctly any most snoring will be gone, and you will live better. Jim

For most people XPAP, is the Gold Standard treat sleep apnea.

[Henry Jr]

Ed, As I read this thread I wondered if you have been through a study to diagnose your OSA or if this is a self-diagnosis. I would caution you that Central events won't be resolved by a snore alert device.
I'll give the GIANT marketing folks some credit on this; the web link specifically mentions CSA but never claims that the device will help with that particular problem.