Abstract:
A training method and device to suppress sounds caused by sleep and breathing disorders, such as, snoring and sleep apnea. The system records the actual snoring of the subject, modifies it, by time delay and perhaps other sound modifying techniques, and broadcasts it to the subject by a speaker or earphone. This trains the person to attend to his/her own snoring, so that he/she might stop it by moving parts of his/her body or changing breathing patterns. The method and device may include the combination and/or integration of hearing aid functionality and means for detection of snoring sounds.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This patent application is related to, and claims priority from, U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60,776,961 filed on Feb. 28, 2006, entitled TRAINING DEVICE AND METHOD TO SUPPRESS SOUNDS CAUSED BY SLEEP AND BREATHING DISORDERS, SUCH AS SNORING AND SLEEP APNEA, filed in English, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to methods and biofeedback training devices for the suppression of snoring sounds and sounds associated with sleep or breathing disorders, such as sleep apnea.  
       BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Almost all people who snore are unable to hear their own snoring. The brain has a way of blocking the sound, making it tolerable for the subject, even while it becomes intolerable for another person trying to sleep in the same room. Once a subject learns to ignore their own snoring sounds, the sounds may then further increase without disturbing the subject, however such increased habituation can make the snoring even more intolerable for anyone else attempting to sleep in the same room. In contrast, the brain is vigilant in detecting unfamiliar sounds even while the subject is sound asleep. It is the purpose of this invention to reverse this adaptation by making the subject self aware of their snoring and compelling the subject to learn a quieter breathing pattern by feeding back the snoring sound in such a manner that the subject attends to it. Various devices for the suppression of snoring have been proposed which disturb or punish the subject when they snore loudly by an auditory alarm, vibration, electric shock or other noxious stimuli. Some of them, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,867 emit modulated sounds to train the subject by increasing the noxious feedback in proportion to increasing loudness of the snoring. The difficulty with all these devices is that they do not give accurate feedback and the subject easily habituates to the stimulus, rendering these methods of limited effectiveness. The difficulty with some of these devices that include an earpiece is that they may prevent the subject from hearing ambient sounds that might alert them to danger.  
         [0004]     Therefore, what is needed is a method and device which teaches the subject to attend to their own snoring and unconsciously stop it by, for example, moving their head or moving their mouth or throat, or changing breathing patterns all while still asleep at some level. Further, such a method or device should not be subject to accommodation or habituation and at the same time should allow the subject to hear ambient sounds, even if the subject has hearing impairment.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     This present invention provides methods and devices which trains a subject who snores to become self aware that they are snoring by bypassing the brain&#39;s habituation mechanism which would otherwise block the snoring sound. To train awareness of snoring, in an embodiment of the invention the subject&#39;s own snoring sounds are used as the prompt, and modified only to that degree that allows them to side-step the mind&#39;s normal ability to ignore them. The snoring sounds that are used for the prompt may be those that were vocalized by the subject some time interval before, usually a fraction of a second before which are played back to the subject after a suitable time delay so that the subject&#39;s brain thinks these sounds were not produced by the subject. Alternatively, after detection of sleep induced sounds pre-recorded sounds not from the user may be played back without a time delay and the brain will interpret these as not being produced by the subject.  
         [0006]     Thus in one aspect of the invention there is provided a device for training a person to suppress snoring sounds and/or sounds associated with sleep or breathing disorders, comprising:  
         [0007]     a) a microprocessor controller, a detector to detect sound signals emitted by a person during periods of sleep in communication said microprocessor controller so that sound signals emitted by the person and detected by said detector are converted to sound signals recorded by said microprocessor controller;  
         [0008]     b) a speaker in communication with said microprocessor; and  
         [0009]     c) said microprocessor controller including processing means configured to 
        i) prepare pre-selected sound signals that the person&#39;s brain interprets as having originated outside of the person and not produced by the person to prepare, and     ii) transmit said pre-selected sound signals to said speaker after said detector detects the sounds emitted by the person.        
 
         [0012]     The present invention also provides a device for training a person to suppress snoring sounds and/or sounds associated with sleep or breathing disorders, comprising:  
         [0013]     a) a microprocessor controller, a detector to detect sound signals emitted by a person during periods of sleep in communication said microprocessor controller so that sound signals emitted by the person and detected by said detector are converted to sound signals recorded by said microprocessor controller;  
         [0014]     b) a speaker in communication with said microprocessor; and  
         [0015]     c) said microprocessor controller including processing means configured to 
        ii) transmit said recorded sound signals to said speaker after a pre-selected time delay from when the sound signals emitted by the person are first detected.        
 
         [0017]     In another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for training a person to suppress snoring sounds and/or sounds associated with sleep or breathing, comprising:  
         [0018]     a) detecting sound signals emitted by a person during periods of sleep; and thereafter  
         [0019]     b) playing pre-selected sound signals within earshot of the person with the sound pre-selected sound signals being selected such that the person&#39;s brain interprets the pre-selected sound signals as having originated outside of the person and not produced by the person.  
         [0020]     A further understanding of the functional and advantageous aspects of the invention can be realized by reference to the following detailed description and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0021]     Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the drawings, which are not to scale, in which:  
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a perspective frontal view of a training device for the suppression of snoring sounds and sounds associated with sleep or breathing disorders constructed in accordance with the present invention in the form of an earplug;  
         [0023]      FIG. 2  is a sectional view of the earplug device of  FIG. 1  in the outer ear of a subject;  
         [0024]      FIG. 3  shows an embodiment of the earplug device showing the internal components;  
         [0025]      FIG. 4  is a of another embodiment of the earplug training device according to the present invention;  
         [0026]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a remote control unit, which may operate in cooperation with separate elements of the system, or act as a stand-alone device; and  
         [0027]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of another embodiment of the training device in the form of a pillow. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0028]     Generally speaking, the systems described herein are directed to methods and devices for the suppression of snoring sounds and sounds associated with sleep or breathing disorders, such as sleep apnea. As required, embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. However, the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary, and it should be understood that the invention may be embodied in many various and alternative forms. The Figures are not to scale and some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular elements while related elements may have been eliminated to prevent obscuring novel aspects. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. For purposes of teaching and not limitation, the illustrated embodiments are directed to a method and devices for the suppression of snoring sounds and the like.  
         [0029]     As used herein, the term “about”, when used in conjunction with ranges of dimensions, temperatures or other physical properties or characteristics is meant to cover slight variations that may exist in the upper and lower limits of the ranges of dimensions so as to not exclude embodiments where on average most of the dimensions are satisfied but where statistically dimensions may exist outside this region.  
         [0030]     The present invention provides a method and devices for training a subject to stop or reduce their own snoring. Without being bound by any theory, this is accomplished by the method and device disclosed herein by recording when snoring events (or other sound events) start and then playing back sounds which would not be recognized by the subject as being sounds they have made. This may be achieved in several ways including playing back to the subject the same sounds emitted by the subject but with a time delay long enough so that the subject will generally not recognize them as their own. Other ways of achieving this may include simply playing back pre-recorded sounds or synthesized sounds which would not be recognized as sounds emitted by the subject and this playback could be done without the same time delay since clearly these sounds would not be recognized by the subject&#39;s brain as being their own. Another way is to record the subject&#39;s own sounds and manipulating them and playing them back without the above mentioned time delay (or they could be played back with the time delay).  
         [0031]     Another way to achieve this is to produce a small time delay between the subjects ears picking up the sounds. This may be done using two ear pieces which are programmed to emit the sounds at different times into the subject&#39;s ears. Alternatively, placing a sound source a sufficient distance from the subject and emitting sounds will be interpreted by the subject&#39;s brain as being sounds not emitted by the subject since the sounds will be detected at slightly different times by each ear because of the difference in distance and intensity of the sounds picked by the subjects two different ears.  
         [0032]     Thus, in the cases where the method involves both ears detecting the sounds it is advantageous if one ear receives a slightly shifted signal from the other so that the sound is perceived to come from outside the body. Prolonged use of the device alters the breathing and sleeping habits of the subject so as to reduce snoring. Occasional use of the device after the initial retraining period may be necessary to maintain the new quieter sleep patterns and prevent relapse.  
         [0033]     For some embodiments the device could be configured so that the system recognize when snoring or sleep disorder events are occurring, and this is accomplished by various methods, such as a simple volume threshold or more complex pattern recognition and/or including volume, frequency and time intervals; perhaps enhanced by: motion and/or level detection means, and/or means to detect darkness (in the bedroom). These embodiments use this information to modify the functionality of the system. For example, in those embodiments that include hearing aid functionality, the detection that the subject is not snoring, might suppress the anti-snoring function and optimize the system to perform as a hearing aid; and when snoring is detected, the system might optimize for snoring detection and abatement, perhaps degrading or turning off the hearing aid function.  
         [0034]      FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2  illustrate an embodiment of the present invention in the form of a hearing aid earpiece (or earpiece)  10  which has a shape allowing it to be conveniently placed in the outer ear of one or both ears  14  of a subject  16 . As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the earpiece unit  10  houses a sound detector such as a microphone  20  for connected to a control unit  22 , either wirelessly by an aerial  24  or by connector  26 . A battery  30 , rechargeable battery or other energy providing device powers the control unit  22 . The microphone  20  detects the snoring sound and reports it to the controller, usually comprised of a computer and memory device, which manipulates the received signal by altering the output to a speaker  34 , by delaying its broadcast, and/or modulating its frequency, amplitude, or adding or subtracting sounds. The modified sound is then transmitted to the speaker  34 , wirelessly or by electrical connections  26 , where it is broadcast through the channel  38 , through orifice  40  into the ear canal  14  of one or both ears ( FIG. 2 ). When two earpieces are used concurrently the signals to each ear may be varied in such a way so as to create the illusion that the signal originates from outside the body.  
         [0035]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of another embodiment of an earpiece  100  which is very similar to the earplug  10  in  FIG. 3  except that the channel  38  extends through the earplug with two open ends  40 . This allows ambient sounds to be detected by the subject. This feature allows the subject to hear ambient sounds, even when the unit  100  is off. This feature may make the unit safer for the wearer, since the sound of an intruder, or other dangerous occurrence, might otherwise go unnoticed.  
         [0036]      FIG. 5  shows a remote control which may be used to control one or two earpieces wirelessly or through a cord connection, and may incorporate some of the functional features of the earpieces so as to reduce the complexity of the earpieces. It may be preferred not to include or integrate controls  50  and  56  into the earpiece  10  directly because the size of these controls may be large compared to the earpiece. Similarly, functional processing steps may be more easily carried out by the control unit  52  than by the earpiece since the control unit is not constrained by size and power availability as are the earpieces. It will be recognized that the redistribution of functional elements between the control unit  52  and ear pieces  10  can improve the functionality of the whole system without changing the basic approach.  
         [0037]     Indeed, the control unit  52  can be made to incorporate most if not all of the elements of the system if it is advantageous to do so. For example, when the control unit has a built in microphone  90  and speaker  34 , it may operate independently and without need of earpieces, or alternatively broadcast through a remote speaker located in a pillow or other convenient location, or an earpiece containing just a speaker may be used. When sound signals are transmitted from control unit  52  the unit would include wireless transmitter.  
         [0038]     Thus one device may combine the functionality of an anti-snoring device and a hearing aid by use of an electromechanical switch  50  on the remote control unit  52  or on the earpiece  10  or both, which can select the appropriate mode of operation, on and off, and between hearing aid simple, or anti-snoring device, or anti-snoring device with hearing aid acting simultaneously. In these embodiments, for example, the remote control unit  52  can also control the various other aspects of these modes, such as volume, tonal qualities, pitch and filtering options, thresholds for activation of anti-snoring functions etc, by selector  56 .  
         [0039]     In these embodiments, the controller  22  and/or  52  generally control both functions, and the microphone  20  and speaker  34  serve as such for both the anti-snoring and hearing aid. That is, the hearing aid uses the microphone  20  to pick up the ambient sounds, the controller  22  and/or  52  process that sound, such as amplifying it and filtering it, and the sound so processed is transmitted to the speaker  34 , which broadcasts the sound, to the inner ear canal  14 . The anti-snoring functions, whether alone, or in combination with hearing aid functionality, utilize the said components, microphone  20 , controller  22  and/or  52 , and speaker  34 , as described above. It is to be understood however that in some preferred embodiments, the system may contain any number of microphones  20  and speakers  34 , each with particular sonic qualities.  
         [0040]     The controllers  22  and  52  may be configured to filter the input snoring sounds, and using pattern recognition algorithms, identify particular sounds that are symptomatic of particular conditions, and selectively feed back only those sounds, or preferentially amplifies only those sounds, after being modified as described above. For example, a subject suffering from sleep apnea may have particular sounds that result from breathing patterns associated with that condition, in addition to regular snoring so that the device may isolate just those sleep apnea related sounds, and feed these back to the subject, with the modifications described above, to specifically treat the sleep apnea condition.  
         [0041]     It has be found that a suitable time delay for most subjects is between approximately one tenth of a second to approximately two seconds, with best results achieved with a delay of approximately one-quarter to half of a second. However, for subjects having varying responses, the time delays may be less than and/or greater than those delays in the range just referred to, and all these are considered to fall within the ambit of this invention.  
         [0042]     The device may be configured to allow for a variable time delay in order to prevent accommodation or habituation, randomly or according to a schedule. Some preferred embodiments also, or alternatively, modulate the frequency and/or amplitude of the normal snoring sounds to assist the subject in attending to the rebroadcast sounds. Other preferred embodiments may add or subtracts sounds, or make other modifications to the original snoring sound sufficient for the purpose. Again, all of these modifications may be altered randomly or according to a schedule to prevent accommodation or habituation. Similarly, these modifications may be altered randomly or according to a schedule based on the effectiveness of the subject&#39;s response, using an adaptive algorithm.  
         [0043]     When two earpieces are used, one in each ear, still greater effectiveness can be achieved by having each earpiece deliver a slightly different time delay. Small timing differences between each ear are usually interpreted by the brain as a sound originating from outside the body in a particular direction and hence are more likely to bypass the brain&#39;s mechanism to ignore the sound, particularly while asleep. The greatest effectiveness is achieved when the feedback is tuned to be indistinguishable from a sound originating from outside the body, and most unlike a sound originating from the body. This exploits the brain&#39;s innate alertness, while asleep, to external noises while bypassing its automatic suppression of self generated noise.  
         [0044]     The microphone  20  may be configured to detect the subject&#39;s snoring and rather than time shifting or altering the sound of the subject&#39;s own snoring, simply plays back a prerecorded or synthesized snoring sound, for the duration of the subject&#39;s snoring, perhaps altering this rerecorded or synthesized snoring in a random, preprogrammed manner, and/or adaptive manner. This prerecorded sound may be the subject&#39;s own snoring sounds, the snoring sounds of another subject and/or synthesized snoring sounds. The differences between the subject&#39;s own snoring and the prerecorded snoring or the synthesized snoring will be sufficient that the subject will then attend to his own snoring.  
         [0045]     The device may be configured to approximately match the volume or other parameters of the subject&#39;s snoring, perhaps with a time delay, with the preprogrammed or synthesized snoring. While preferred embodiments of the type referred to in this paragraph may not be quite as effective at those that alter the subject&#39;s own snoring, in real-time, as referred to in other paragraphs of this disclosure, it may be less expensive to implement, as the control units  22 / 52  need only have in memory a recording of a snoring routine, which may be looped, or the precursors or program instructions, from which the synthesized sounds are produced. In these embodiments, as in some of the other embodiments of the invention, the subject&#39;s own snoring may also be broadcast on the speaker  34 , and/or be heard by the subject through a channel  38  ( FIG. 4 ).  
         [0046]     It should be noted that the preferred embodiments of this invention treat, not just snoring, but all sleep abnormalities that cause loud sounds such as sleep apnea.  
         [0047]     Since the device includes a microphone  20 , speaker  34  controller  22 , which includes signal amplifiers, all incorporated into an earplug  10 , (perhaps with remote control unit  52 ) it can be readily appreciated that these embodiments can also act as hearing aids. Therefore it is to be understood that some embodiments of the earplug  10  may act only as a snoring device, or as both a snoring device and hearing aid, and still fall within the scope of the present invention. For example standard hearing aids can be modified to remove the standard operating program in the control chip and a program inserted which will implement the present method such as emitting pre-recorded sounds, manipulate the subject&#39;s snoring sounds such that they are unrecognizable by the subject, by playing back the subjects own sounds with the time delay. For embodiments using two modified hearing aids they can be produced in pairs with each device programmed to play the sounds in a differential manner as discussed above such that the subject&#39;s brain interprets the sounds as being from an outside source.  
         [0048]     Alternatively, existing hearing aids may have, in addition to the regular control programming, additional control programming added to implement the present method. Small mechanical switches could be used to switch between the hearing aid mode and the biofeedback mode. Switching could also be achieved using pattern recognition programs and/or external sources (position, light etc.) which determine when the subject is asleep.  
         [0049]     The fact that both functions can be incorporated into one device greatly reduces the cost of the snoring feature for those that also suffer from hearing disabilities and require a hearing aid. For those that wish to leave the hearing aids in their ears during sleep, they will now be able to use the anti-snoring device at the same time. The integration of these functions is also safer for those subjects that have hearing disabilities and wish to be alerted to unusual sounds, which might signal impending danger, during the night.  
         [0050]     Where the functionality of the hearing aid and anti-snoring are combined and/or integrated, it may be important that the system recognize when the person is sleeping and/or snoring, and for this purpose pattern recognition software/hardware that recognizes snoring be included into the controller  22  and/or remote control unit  52 .  
         [0051]     In embodiments which do not use a remote controller, any control settings are made on the hearing aid ear piece, using standard electromechanical controls  80 ,  82 . In other embodiments of the invention the remote control unit  52  may contain, or be connected to, a speaker that transmits the modified sound near the subject, rather than to an earplug. It is to be understood that the principal components of the system can be arranged and located in any convenient way. For example some or all of the principal components may be incorporated into a pillow  60  as illustrated on  FIG. 6 . In addition to a pillow, the components could be incorporated into a hat or cap, or a head band.  
         [0052]     In another embodiment of the invention, the microphone  20  and/or the speaker  34  may be located remote to the earplug  10  or pillow  60 . For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , in the case of the earplug  10 , the microphone  90  might be placed in the remote control unit  52  which permits the system to operate, even if the subject has his head on the pillow such that the earplug  10  is covered by the pillow  60 , which would otherwise prevent a microphone  20  in the earplug  10  from detecting the sound. Other embodiments have a remote control unit  52  that includes a speaker  34  as well as the microphone  90  and can act as a stand-alone unit, without an earplug, as illustrated in  FIG. 5 , but this arrangement might also awake a person sharing the same room.  
         [0053]     An example of a simple preferred embodiment of the invention would be a portable computer (PC) or a personal digital assistant (PDA) 52/22 that incorporates PC functionality which runs a time delay software program, such as “AudioSyncer” sold by Matthews Software, 26150 Greythorne Trail, Farmington Hills, Mich., 48334, U.S.A. (matthewssoftware.com). Such a system including a microphone  20  and earplug or speaker in a pillow  60 , would compose a simple preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0054]      FIG. 6  illustrates the system incorporated into a pillow, but it is to be understood that it may be incorporated in whole or in part in any convenient article or object, such as a headband or headboard and still be within the ambit of the invention. As noted above, some of the principal parts of the system may be remote, such as the remote control unit  52 . In the preferred embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 6 , the speaker  34  is located inside the pillow near where the ear of the subject would be normally located. In some preferred embodiments, any number of speakers  34  and microphones  20  may be utilized and in some preferred embodiments, sensors may be utilized to locate the mouth and ear of the subject and activate only those microphones and speakers closest to the subject&#39;s mouth and ear, respectively. For example, some preferred embodiments have the controller  22  compare the volume inputs from the multiple microphones  20  to locate the mouth and/or in combination with such sensors as pressure, heat, motion or sound sensors (transducers)  44  that locate the ear and mouth, so that the controller can send the signal to that speaker  34 , that is closest to the ear of the subject.  
         [0055]     The control unit  22  and/or the remote control unit  52  can simply detect, record, modify (with time delay etc.) and transmit all the sounds that are detected by the microphone  20 , or only the snoring sounds. The transmission to the speakers of all sounds detected may be sufficient, where the microphone is designed to detect substantially that sound only, or may be convenient where simplicity is required. Other preferred embodiments include electronic means of filtering the sound signal such that only the modified snoring sounds are passed to the speaker  34 .  
         [0056]     Tests by the inventor show that retraining with the present method and devices can take several months, with substantial gains typically occurring within three (3) weeks. Sleep is usually greatly disturbed in the first few nights of use until breathing sounds begin to come under control and then diminish thereafter as quieter sleep patterns are established.  
         [0057]     While the present invention has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as those skilled in the art will readily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the purview and scope of the inventions and appended claims.  
         [0058]     As used herein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes” and “including” are to be construed as being inclusive and open ended, and not exclusive. Specifically, when used in this specification including claims, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, “includes” and “including” and variations thereof mean the specified features, steps or components are included. These terms are not to be interpreted to exclude the presence of other features, steps or components.  
         [0059]     The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented to illustrate the principles of the invention and not to limit the invention to the particular embodiment illustrated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by all of the embodiments encompassed within the following claims and their equivalents.