Can You Reduce Snoring With An App?

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, Ph.D., Adam Black, Ph.D., 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 the Soundly app. The mobile app 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.

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Written By: 

Brian Krohn is the CEO of Soundly.  He received a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Minnesota as an EPA fellow and master degrees from University of Oxford in environmental policy and the philosophy of sciences as a Rhodes scholar. He was an Innovation Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Medical Device Center. 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 gwen@soundlyapp.com.

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Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash