Does Sleep Angel Work?  

A device advertised on our web site has attracted a huge amount of attention and growing controversy.  It's called Sleep Angel and is an elastic headpiece that fits under the chin.  Priced at $59.97, it's hardly cheap, but is within range of anyone desperate to find relief from their snoring or obstructive sleep apnea.

The manufacturer pays a generous commission to  "affiliates" who promote the product, generous enough to motivate some affiliates to send out Sleep Angel spam by the millions.  All spam and advertising leads back to a hard-sell web site that has clearly led many buyers to believe they may have finally found a solution to their sleep disorder. 

PutanEndtoSnoring this week sent email to all customers who bought a Sleep Angel after visiting our web site.  We received 32 usable responses -- enough, we feel, to indicate who may benefit from the product, and who should stay away.

• 8 of the 32 respondents (25%) said the product stopped their snoring.
• All 8 are still using the Sleep Angel and all would recommend it.
• All 8 described themselves as people who slept and snored with their mouths open
• All 8 said that use of the Sleep Angel kept their mouths shut at night
• Seven of the 8 felt they had "mild" obstructive sleep apnea (the 8th had no sleep apnea) and all but one of those felt the Sleep Angel helped their OSA.

Anyone who has gone through multiple snoring remedies before finding something that works knows that 25% success rate is actually not too bad.  If it was easy to stop snoring, there would not be 100 remedies listed on our web site! But there are a few troubling aspects about the Sleep Angel:

• The Sleep Angel is guaranteed against product defects only -- many customers have assumed the guarantee would also cover failure to block snoring.
• Perhaps understandably, given the huge number of orders, many customers have experienced long delays in receiving their product and say that customer service has been unresponsive.
• The company's web site, while carefully worded, can lead a reader to believe that the Sleep Angel can be a complete cure for obstructive sleep apnea. In fact, no-one with moderate or severe sleep apnea in our survey was helped by the product, and a review of the raw data of a sleep study of Sleep Angel users shows that the benefits are uneven.

What about the 24 respondents who were not helped by the product? Like the satisfied customers, many of them are also mouth-breathers with mild sleep apnea.  Three found they could not keep the product on at night, others said it simply did not work.

So, should you buy a Sleep Angel? Our survey shows that Sleep Angel may be worthwhile if you sleep with your mouth open. The product will help keep you mouth shut and may also reposition your jaw to keep your airways more open. You should also take a look at other products designed for the mouth breather.

If you have anything more than mild obstructive sleep apnea, it could be life-threatening for you to waste your time with simple remedies, including Sleep Angel.  You need to seek medical attention.

UPDATE -- SINCE WE PUBLISHED THIS NEWSLETTER, SLEEP ANGEL HAS A NEW NAME -- SNORING STOPPER.  WE HAVE CONTINUED TO RECEIVE COMPLAINTS ABOUT POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE. CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Is this information useful to you? Send us questions or feedback.  And remember, information provided by PutanEndtoSnoring does not substitute for the advice of your physician. 

Recent Apnea Research: If OSA is related to a chemical imbalance, can a drug treatment be far behind? Hello, Remeron

Chemical imbalances in the brain may be partly to blame for obstructive sleep apnea, according to University of Michigan Health System researchers.  The new findings were made using neurochemical brain scans and detailed sleep studies in 13 patients with multiple system atrophy (MSA), a rare and fatal degenerative neurological disease almost always accompanied by severe sleep disorders.

Their results from the MSA patients, who all had both sleep apnea and REM behavior disorder (RBD), were very different from those of 27 healthy control subjects. Specifically, the researchers found that MSA patients had a far lower density of certain brain cells, or neurons, that produce the key chemicals dopamine and acetylcholine. The greater their lack, the worse their sleep problems.

The patients with the fewest dopamine-producing neurons in the striatum of their brains had the worst RBD symptoms of thrashing, talking and violent flailing while they slept. And patients with the lowest levels of acetylcholine-producing neurons in the brainstem had the most interruptions in their breathing during sleep.

A lot more research is needed, but the findings raise the possibility that OSA may be treated neurochemically. Interestingly, a completely independent study last month at the University of Illinois found that an an antidepressant called mirtazapine significantly improved the sleeping patterns of all 12 OSA patients who participated in a sleep study.  It would be interesting to know how the drugs acts on acetylcholine levels in the brainstem.

Mirtazapine has not been approved in the U.S. for treatment of sleep apnea but apneacs desperate for relief and depressed from lack of sleep could perhaps ask their doctors to prescribe Remeron (the brandname for mirtazapine) as an anti-depressant. 

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