FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes. SoundSleep is completely free to use.

When you go to bed, place your phone at the bedside, level with your head and at arms’ length. Make sure that the microphone is pointing towards you and that your phone is plugged into a power source (otherwise the battery will drain during the night). Minimise any background noise and turn off any nearby electrical appliances as these can affect the accuracy of the analysis. Start the analysis and leave the app open – the screen will dim automatically so you are not disturbed by the brightness. You can use the delay function if you don’t want the analysis to start straightaway.

No, unfortunately. Apps that capture sound are blocked from starting automatically in order to protect your privacy.

SoundSleep needs to be connected to the internet to complete its analysis. A few megabytes of data will be passed between your phone and the server, so you should connect to WiFi if you don’t want to use your phone data.

 The analysis cannot be completed in airplane mode.

Ideally, yes. If you run out of battery during the night, you’ll lose your analysis.

No, but currently the algorithm will not differentiate between the snores of two people sleeping in the same room, so it may be difficult to understand who snored more or less on a particular night.

No. The app does not make recordings except for a few good examples of snores for you to listen to. SoundSleep’s algorithm processes the audio signal within the app on the phone, analysing how much snoring it contains. No audio recordings are retained or transferred to a server, except those few snoring examples (which you can delete if you want to by contacting [email protected]).

SoundSleep is compatible with any device running iOS 12 or greater, or Android 7 or greater.

Most phone cases don’t block the microphone, so your snoring reports should still be accurate. However, chunkier cases can sometimes be an obstruction, so you should make sure your microphone is fully uncovered before you start an analysis.

Factors like a blocked nose/cold, drinking alcohol and a heavy meal can all impact your snoring. Noting these factors creates a more accurate report that will help you work out the true cause of your snoring.

Yes. You can choose how many hours you want the app to analyse each night.

Snoring is a complicated issue, and discovering the cause of your snoring isn’t always straightforward. Generally, the main cause of snoring is relaxed muscle tension in the back of the throat, which can lead to a narrowing of the airways and vibrations of relaxed muscle tissue. Another cause of snoring is congestion of the nasal passages which can limit or block airflow through the nose. This can be due to colds, allergies, or a blocked nose, which forces you to breathe through your mouth and can lead to snoring. Lifestyle factors such as drinking alcohol, smoking, and being overweight can all make you more likely to snore. SoundSleep allows you to log these factors along with products suitable for each cause of snoring. Over time, you’ll be able to spot patterns of when you snored more or less on certain nights. This helps to give you an indication of the cause of your snoring.

The app will generate a snoring report for you. You’ll be able to see when snores occurred, how loud they were, and how much of the night you spent in periods of snoring. You’ll also be able to listen back to recordings of good snore examples from the night.

You can use any snoring relief product in conjunction with SoundSleep. However, the app has some features specifically designed for use with Snoreeze oral devices. You can find out more about oral devices here.

Loud snoring is often a symptom of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). However, loud snoring doesn’t mean that you definitely have OSA – and some OSA sufferers don’t report loud snoring as a symptom of their condition. If you suspect you might have OSA, you should visit your doctor as soon as possible. They’ll be able to recommend the best treatment option for you.

If snoring is affecting your sleep, or your mental or physical health, you should take steps to deal with it.

SoundSleep analyses how loudly and frequently you snore. By using the app alongside a snoring relief product, SoundSleep can track how effectively the product is working and offer suggestions to help reduce your snoring.

Yes. You’ll be able to listen to clips of your snoring and breathing disruptions.

If you think you might have Obstructive Sleep Apnoa (OSA), SoundSleep has useful features to help you assess your OSA risk. These include a STOP-BANG score, plus a marker on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The Breathing Disruption Index (BDI) tracks the number of events where you may have stopped breathing or struggled to breathe in the night.

Obstructive sleep apnoea can be difficult to diagnose. Some people suffer from OSA and never even suspect that they have the condition. One main symptom of OSA is loud snoring, but not everybody who snores has OSA. You may be suffering from OSA if you snore and stop breathing in your sleep, or wake up tired (even after 8 hours sleep). When you experience an episode of apnoea during sleep, you will usually wake up with a loud snore or snort.

The Breathing Disruption Index (BDI) tracks how often you stop breathing or struggle to breathe in the night. The BDI is a good indicator of apnoeic events (apnoeas and hypopneas).

Combined with the Oral Device, SoundSleep can help you identify if your snoring problem has improved via nightly snoring reports. It also allows you to see if the device advancement setting is working effectively.

You can use SoundSleep with any type of snoring relief product, or without a product at all. But there are also some special features to help with the use of Snoreeze oral devices in particular.

Sometimes the app mistakes other sounds for snoring, but if your sleeping environment is quiet then the effect on your overall snoring report should be minimal. The sounds most likely to be mistaken for snores are those with a deep or vibratory tone, like talking, coughing or rumbling road noise. The low frequency hum of electrical appliances, which may not be audible to the human ear, can also interfere with the analysis, so please ensure any nearby appliances are turned off. Currently the app cannot distinguish between multiple snorers, so the snoring of a bed partner will also be reported in the analysis.

SoundSleep’s machine-learning algorithm makes it one of the most accurate sleep apps you can use to monitor your snoring. It has been trained on many hours of carefully labelled snore recordings made in a variety of bedroom environments by both men and women. The Breathing Disruption Index (BDI) tracks the number of events where you may have stopped breathing or struggled to breathe; in a clinical trial, more than 80% of cases reported these events as matching AHI events in tests for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA).

Some background noises are known to interfere with the analysis, especially rumbling road noise, coughing and speech which have similar acoustic features. For the best results, SoundSleep should therefore be used in a quiet sleeping environment.

SoundSleep generates one report for every analysis you make. You can collect as many reports as you’d like.

SoundSleep’s snoring reports will show you:

• Time spent snoring – percentage of the night you were snoring
• Snore intensity – a score based on how loudly and often you snored
• Breathing Disruption Index (BDI) – the number of events where you stopped breathing or struggled to breathe in the night
• Factors – things that might have impacted your snoring (like alcohol, a blocked nose, a heavy meal before bed)
• Actions – steps you’ve taken or products you’ve used to try to reduce snoring
• Sounds – clips of your snoring and breathing disruptions

Try to make your sleeping environment as quiet as possible because the app can mistake some sounds, like speech and road noise, for snoring. The low frequency hum of electrical appliances, which may not be audible to the human ear, can also interfere with the analysis, so please ensure any nearby appliances are turned off.

No identifiable information is collected except your email address (which is excluded from any data analysis tasks conducted by PFLH). Your data is therefore kept anonymous. No audio recordings are stored on the server, except a few snippets of snores for you to listen to.

Reduce the risk of failure by making sure your phone is plugged in to charge before you go to sleep. Keep the app open with your phone unlocked (don’t press the phone’s Sleep/Wake button before going to sleep). You might want to activate your phone’s “do not disturb” mode to prevent audio disturbance from notifications or calls. Disconnect from any audio devices like headphones or hearing aids.