'Snore box' spots sleep trouble

Doctors have to monitor sleeping patients

A portable device which monitors night-time noise levels can tell the difference between normal snoring and dangerous sleep apnoea.

The machine spares the patient the need to spend the night hooked up to equipment at a sleep laboratory many miles from their homes.

Ear, nose and throat surgeon Jon Osborne, from the Glan Clwyd District General Hospital in north Wales, developed the "snore box" after his local health authority decided to stop funding sleep laboratory work for his patients.

A single night in a laboratory can cost £1,800 per patient.

Bedside box

The box sits on the bedside table, and monitors the severity of the sleeper's snoring.

It can tell the difference between snores which should be corrected with an operation, and those which may be treatable without surgery.

At the same time, it records the levels of oxygen in the blood using a thimble-like monitoring device which sits on the end of a finger.

Temporary stop

Temporary drops in oxygen levels could be a sign of sleep apnoea, a disorder in which the patient occasionally stops breathing for a brief period.

Sleep apnoea patients, because of the poor quality of their sleep, often suffer from fatigue, which puts them at risk while driving or working during the day.

Mr Osborne said: "This development saves patients an uncomfortable, sometimes sleepless night in an expensive sleep laboratory.

"It avoids unnecessary, painful and often unsuccessful surgery for patients who won't benefit from it and selects the patients appropriately for medical or surgical treatment."

A commercially produced "snore box" will be available next year, said Mr Osborne.