New Research Shows You Can Reduce Snoring by Playing a Smartphone App
With backing from NIH, NSF, and the University of Minnesota's Sleep Clinic, the Soundly app offers an inexpensive solution to snoring without the need for cumbersome devices or surgery.
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In partnership with the University of Minnesota's Sleep Centers and the Medical Devices Center, researchers recently demonstrated the ability to reduce snoring through a noninvasive therapy facilitated by a smartphone game.
Snoring occurs when the upper airway muscles relax, obstructing a patient's airflow, which causes noisy tissue vibrations during inhalation. In their research paper, "Smartphone-based delivery of oropharyngeal exercises for treatment of snoring," Brian Krohn, PhD., Adam Black, PhD., and Dr. Umesh Goswami, MD, prove that these noisy vibrations can be reduced by performing an oral therapy designed to strengthen and tone specific muscles within the upper airway.
Snoring continues to be the most common complaint in sleep medicine clinics, affecting 35 percent of all adults. In addition to negatively impacting sleep partners, snoring may be a predictor of obstructive sleep apnea, which can lead to high blood pressure, inflammation, and numerous other health risks.
Existing snoring treatments are often uncomfortable and require expensive devices that need to be worn during sleep. They tend only to address the symptoms of snoring, not the root cause.
Recognizing the universal need for a simpler solution to snoring, Dr. Krohn enlisted the help of sleep physicians, speech pathologists, and video game developers to create Soundly, the first app-based therapy clinically proven to reduce snoring. Soundly accomplishes this by presenting a visually stimulating, gamified therapy in which an onscreen character responds to scientifically optimized vocal commands dictated by the user.
"The 'ee' sound moves the tongue to the front of the mouth and the 'aw' sound moves the tongue to the back of the mouth," explains Dr. Krohn, Soundly's founder and CEO. "Meanwhile, the 'ng' sound engages the muscles of the soft palate. By saying 'nee' and 'naw' in succession, the user is able to move their in-game character while doing the perfect pushup for their oropharyngeal muscles."
With 100 percent of test subjects' bed partners reporting a reduction in snoring and support from the medical sleep community, Soundly continues to focus its app on delivering a science-driven sleep therapy through the vehicle of a gamified smartphone app. The newly updated Soundly app is available in the iOS App Store and will debut at Somnex, The Sleep Show in London, Oct. 12-14. Get details here.
About Soundly:
Soundly is a Minnesota-based medical technology company founded in 2017. Research for Soundly is supported by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) in conjunction with a 2017 sleep study. Research partners include the Medical Sleep Clinic, Fairview Sleep Centers, and Medical Devices Center.
To download a free trial of Soundly, visit the app store from any iPhone or iOS device.
For more information on Soundly, visit www.sleepsound.ly or contact coreybrenner@soundlyapp.com
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