Revolutionary Sleep Tech: Say Goodbye to Sleep Apnea with This Game-Changing Discovery

Clare Williams was in her early 30s when she obtained an surprising analysis: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most typical sleep-related respiration dysfunction. In contrast to the standard sufferer, she was younger, petite and feminine. These identified with OSA are often obese, male and middle-aged.

“For a very long time, docs dismissed my signs as a result of I did not match the profile and so they did not perceive how critically unwell my disrupted nights had been making me,” she mentioned.

Sleepless options

Dr. Erna Sif Arnardottir, a sleep knowledgeable with 20 years of expertise within the area, is devoted to discovering methods for sufferers like Williams to be recognized earlier and for his or her OSA to be handled extra successfully.

“The issue is that sleep is kind of a brand new medical area and, in comparison with different fields, it is not at all times taken very critically,” she mentioned. “Medical docs usually get two to 4 hours of training on sleep, so in the event that they need to know extra, they’ve to hunt additional studying after their formal training.”

But sleep issues can have a disproportionate affect on an individual’s life. OSA impacts an estimated 175 million Europeans and is related to many unfavourable well being penalties, together with an elevated danger of diabetes and coronary heart illness, and continual daytime sleepiness, which might have an effect on an individual’s capacity to operate effectively in every day life.

Arnardottir questions how critically docs take sleep issues presently. “Their strategy is kind of various, and we would like that to vary,” she mentioned.

Arnardottir is the principal investigator of SLEEP REVOLUTION, a four-year worldwide analysis venture. As a result of finish in 2025, this venture includes 39 companion establishments and firms in Europe and Australia, together with the European Sleep Analysis Society and the European Sleep Apnea Database (ESADA). Its purpose is to revolutionize the analysis and remedy of OSA.

As a biomedical scientist, Arnardottir is a agency believer in harnessing the ability of recent applied sciences and synthetic intelligence (AI) to resolve this intractable medical drawback.

“Our purpose is to make use of AI to evaluate the severity of sleep apnea and tailor remedy to each affected person,” mentioned Arnardottir, who’s the director of the Reykjavik College Sleep Institute and the secretary of the European Sleep Analysis Society.

Gasping for air

OSA is taken into account reasonable when an individual experiences greater than 15 respiration stops or lowered respiration durations per night time and extreme after they have an episode each different minute or extra. The gaps in respiration which might be the hallmark of the situation—brought on by collapsed or blocked throat passages—are adopted by loud gasps, choking sounds and loud night breathing as airflow resumes.

“I might stand up within the morning with a sore throat and headache, and I might be exhausted—some days I might actually go to sleep on my ft,” mentioned Williams.

This exhaustion is comprehensible. With every episode of OSA, an individual wakes briefly, usually with out remembering it, leading to an enormous loss within the high quality and depth of their slumber.

Often, the individual is unaware that they’ve surfaced from sleep—time and again—which is why years can move earlier than they search medical assist. And after they do, a lot time typically passes earlier than they’re seen at a specialised sleep clinic.

“There are lengthy ready lists for sleep clinics—as much as two years in some hospitals—which is unacceptable given how severe sleep apnea might be,” mentioned Arnardottir.

Dwelling objective

The staff behind SLEEP REVOLUTION hope to speed up analysis through the use of expertise to deliver extra superior sleep exams out of the clinic and into individuals’s properties. This can make them simpler and more cost effective and will make the look ahead to a sleep evaluation shorter.

“At this time’s sleep clinics are working as if we had been nonetheless utilizing paper recordings, principally simply counting the variety of occasions an individual stops respiration,” mentioned Arnardottir. That is used because the index for OSA severity with out trying on the physiological results of those stops, akin to fragmented sleep, decrease blood oxygen ranges and stress on the cardiovascular system. In keeping with her, this index alone doesn’t take sufficient account of the signs of OSA victims and must be up to date.

The SLEEP REVOLUTION staff are testing using a self-administered sleep monitoring system to be worn by the affected person at dwelling. Over three nights, this system gathers sleep knowledge which is fed to medical practitioners. From afar, they will assess the affected person’s situation together with the danger posed to long-term well being.

“The information supplied by this system, in addition to by an app and wearable wristband worn for longer durations, can be predictive of an individual’s particular person danger of creating illness,” mentioned Arnardottir. “Our perception is that sleep apnea is not equally harmful for everybody—it is probably the most at-risk individuals we have to discover quick and prioritize for remedy.”

One thousand sufferers with suspected OSA from round Europe are presently being assessed, each in clinics and at dwelling, utilizing the staff’s gear.

The processes had been examined first in Iceland with pilot sufferers who used the app and sensible wearables for 3 months. The whole lot was then translated into 15 completely different languages for testing throughout Europe, from Sweden to Romania, Greece, Turkey, Norway and Estonia. All the information collected is saved on a central server primarily based in Iceland the place it’s made obtainable for venture companions to work with.

Transferring the analysis from the hospital to the house opens up the potential of a multi-night analysis, which is simply too costly to do in a hospital setting. This makes it potential to detect modifications in OSA severity and sleep high quality on completely different nights and observe individuals’s extra pure sleep at dwelling.

Bettering remedy

Williams, aged 50, now is aware of the reason for her apnea—a uncommon inherited genetic dysfunction known as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome which makes her liable to the situation—and follows a remedy protocol that retains her in good well being.

She makes use of a Steady Constructive Airway Strain (CPAP) machine at night time to forestall interruptions in her respiration. This shoebox-sized machine delivers a gentle movement of air via a face masks, however it’s not with out its downsides: it is cumbersome to hold and the masks can change into too free, slip off and leak air noisily.

As affected person coordinator of the European Lung Basis—a company that goals to enhance lung well being by encouraging docs to work extra intently with sufferers—she’s conscious that many apnea sufferers dislike the CPAP machine and a few even select to sleep with out it, additional risking their well being.

Way of life modifications

Way of life interventions are one other a part of the analysis staff’s technique to assist individuals decrease the severity of their OSA, as there is a sturdy correlation between weight problems and sleep apnea. “We would like individuals to be getting a extra customized medical expertise,” mentioned Arnardottir.

In a set of experiments, teams of OSA sufferers are receiving directions from both a sports activities knowledgeable, or the SLEEP REVOLUTION app, geared toward strengthening their muscle groups, together with these of the mouth and throat. In addition they obtain dietary recommendation as extra weight could cause a narrowing of the airways.

It is anticipated that interventions discovered to scale back signs and OSA severity can be shared with medical docs to assist them spot and deal with OSA extra rapidly.

“The unhappy truth is that individuals who find yourself getting handled have typically had sleep apnea for years and years,” mentioned Arnardottir. “It might be much better to catch individuals early.”