Revealed at the CES tradeshow in January 2019, Philips expanded SmartSleep suite of consumer-facing sleep solutions is now available in the United States. The products address sleep issues such as difficulty falling asleep, snoring, and simply not getting enough quality sleep. By expanding its suite of consumer sleep solutions, Philips states that its aim is to ultimately address 80% of all sleep issues globally.

“Everyone sleeps, but unfortunately sleep doesn’t come easily for everyone. There are a host of issues that impact sleep—from trouble falling asleep to snoring to chronic conditions like sleep apnea,” says Mark Michels, business leader, Healthy Sleep Solutions at Philips, in a release. “Using our nearly 40 years of deep clinical expertise in sleep technology, we continue to enhance the solutions available for people who experience common issues that negatively impact the quality of their sleep. Our suite of solutions aims to provide consumers with access to clinically backed innovations that will help them get a better night’s sleep to achieve more productive days ahead, while also increasing awareness to the importance of sleep health. All of this comes with the hope of positively impacting the consumer and clinical sleep industries alike.”

Philips SmartSleep suite of solutions is comprised of a mix of existing and new solutions, which aim to make better sleep accessible to everyone:

• SmartSleep Analyzer: It provides personalized analysis of users’ sleep based on an online questionnaire to identify sleep challenges and recommend sleep solutions personalized to the user. This triage tool was developed in collaboration with sleep physicians, specialists, and researchers to identify the most common sleep challenges, helping to support Philips strategy to amplify awareness around the role sleep plays in consumers’ health and wellbeing.
• SmartSleep Snoring Relief Band: This wearable device is a personalized solution for positional snoring. Derived from clinical technology, a small, discreet positional monitor detects when the wearer begins to shift to their back and delivers adaptive vibrations that prompt them to sleep on their side.
• SmartSleep Better Sleep Program: Rooted in the principals of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the SmartSleep Better Sleep Program combines

Kristina Weaver, EMT-P, RPSGT, ensures medical center colleagues across all specialties play the sleep advocate.

By Greg Thompson | Photography by Dani Nichol Photography

Kristina Weaver, EMT-P, RPSGT, cares deeply about her patients, but she’d rather not see them back at Parrish Healthcare. As director of Care Navigation for the Sleep Navigator/Educator Program at the Titusville, Fla, health system, Weaver has managed a 30% reduction in readmissions for newly identified sleep apnea patients over the last four years,¹ a result of healthier patients with positive outcomes.

The improvement comes courtesy of what Weaver calls a more person-centered approach, with screening and education throughout the continuum of care. A person-centered approach gets patients actively involved in their own care, helping them take ownership of their treatment.

“If you have sleep apnea, you cannot effectively treat other comorbid conditions,” Weaver explains. “Take heart failure as an example. When a patient comes into the hospital with left ventricular heart failure and [has] untreated sleep apnea, that left ventricle has to work even harder because it lacks oxygen due to the sleep apnea. Getting that patient to understand how those things work together, and want to fix the problem for themselves, is vital.”

Before Parrish Healthcare started its Sleep Navigator program, many colleagues in the hospital did not even know an on-site sleep center existed. But now, according to Weaver, the mindset throughout the various subspecialties has dramatically changed. “Now when a heart attack patient comes into the [emergency room] who complains of chest pain, or complains of fatigue and poor sleep, they immediately think of sleep medicine,” she says. “In the past, the two and two may not have been put together. No matter if it’s in our diabetes support group, pulmonary rehab, physician practice—anywhere in our network—we treat sleep as a vital sign.”

Sleep Support Group

Once patients get treatment for their sleep apnea, they are often referred to the sleep support group, dubbed “Brevard A.W.A.K.E (Alert, Well and Keeping Energetic).” Of course, in this context, Weaver wants to see her patients again.

The group often attracts 40 to 50 people

Kirk P. Withrow, MD, shares some causes and solutions to snoring.

While the nose generally is not the direct source of the tissue vibration, nasal obstruction – like that from congestion due to cold or allergy – can play a role in snoring. This contributes to snoring due primarily to the change in position of the structures in the throat that occurs with mouth breathing, namely displacement of the tissue toward the back wall of the throat.

“Alleviating nasal obstruction and transitioning away from mouth breathing can improve or eliminate snoring,” Withrow said. “Such treatment can include allergy management or surgery to correct structural defects in the nose.”

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A new finding suggests that the pediatric sleep study, used to diagnose pediatric sleep apnea and to measure improvement after surgery, may be an unreliable predictor of who will benefit from having an adenotonsillectomy.

About 500,000 children under age 15 have adenotonsillectomies every year in the U.S. to treat obstructive sleep apnea. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends the surgery as a first-line therapy to treat the condition, which can cause behavioral issues, cardiovascular problems, poor growth, and developmental delays. The premise is that surgically removing or reducing the severity of the obstruction to the upper airway will improve sleep and reduce other problems caused by the disorder.

In 2012, the AAP recommended that pediatricians should screen children who snore regularly for sleep apnea, and refer children suspected of having the condition for an overnight in-laboratory sleep study. The group also recommended an adenotonsillectomy based on the results of the test. But results from the new UMSOM study, published in the September issue of the journal Pediatrics, call into question those recommendations because the data they analyzed found no relationship between improvements in sleep studies following surgery and resolution of most sleep apnea symptoms.

“Resolution of an airway obstruction measured by a sleep study performed after an adenotonsillectomy has long been thought to correlate with improvement in sleep apnea symptoms, but we found this may not be the case,” said study lead author Amal Isaiah, MD, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Otorhinolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery and Pediatrics at UMSOM. “Our finding suggests that using sleep studies alone to manage sleep apnea in children may be a less than satisfactory way of determining whether surgery is warranted.”

Get the full story at sciencedaily.com.