Monitoring and therapy of sleep-related breathing disorders

The problem of snoring increases as a result of an older and more overweight population. This project offers a long-term miniaturized monitoring system in combination with biofeedback therapy for use at home, which aims at helping those who are troubled by snoring or mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). By using a miniaturized sensor system in a removable headband (i.e. fixed to the skull), head position, snoring, breathing frequency and heart rate were successfully recorded. However, the algorithms must be made more robust to noise and disturbances (sudden movements, swallowing etc.) in order to provide reliable results. The sensor system could be made small enough to be built into implants, which allows innovative new ways of home monitoring with minimum annoyance to the snorer. For example, it can be used to evaluate the compliance and efficacy of therapy methods over a longer period of time. A biofeedback signal was implemented in the headband in order to perform positional therapy, since many snorers have the problem only in the supine position. The first trials have shown promising results and further studies will be conducted to verify the effect.