ResMed : New iPhone App

May 24, 2011 - Are you always tired? Examine your risk of sleep apnea with ResMed's Sleep Assessment app for iPhone® or iPod Touch® - ResMed (NYSE: RMD) released the ResMed Sleep Assessment app, a novel new app for iPhone that lets users record themselves during sleep. The app also includes a clinically validated questionnaire that assesses their risk and other helpful features to empower users to discuss their sleep health with their physician.

Excessive tiredness may be due to sleep apnea

Feeling excessively tired or fatigued is often the result of disrupted, unhealthy sleep. Numerous factors can lead to poor quality sleep, some of which have significant negative health effects. One possible cause of fatigue is sleep apnea, a common sleep disorder. People with sleep apnea report feeling like they're living in a fog, and that no matter how much they sleep they still feel exhausted.
Sleep apnea is a serious health condition in which a person stops breathing temporarily during sleep. After several seconds, the brain triggers a wake-up response, causing the person to awaken gasping. These events may happen hundreds of times per night, though the sleeper usually won't remember waking up. Often a spouse or partner will notice that the person snores loudly during sleep.
Sleep apnea affects approximately one in five U.S. adults, although it is estimated that as many as 80% of sleep apnea sufferers are undiagnosed and untreated.(1) A known cause of hypertension, untreated sleep apnea has also been linked with type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression and stroke.(2-6) People who have sleep apnea feel chronically fatigued and may experience a variety of other symptoms, such as headaches, difficulty concentrating and irritability, to name just a few. Additionally, the loud snoring of sleep apnea can be disruptive to relationships, wreaking equal havoc on a spouse or partner's quality of sleep...


...ResMed's Sleep Assessment app combines a clinically validated questionnaire that quantifies a person's risk of sleep apnea based on known characteristics with an overnight snore recorder that lets them compare their snoring to the snoring of an actual sleep apnea patient. With the snore recorder feature, the user simply starts the app and sets their device by their bedside before sleep. The device records them throughout the night. Users can play back their recording and compare it to sample recordings from actual sleep apnea patients. They may also refer to their recording and questionnaire results when speaking with a physician about their sleep concerns.
In addition to the snore recorder and questionnaire, ResMed's Sleep Assessment app also includes a Sleep Lab Locator, which helps users find a sleep center in their area. Additionally, the app includes a "Sounds to Sleep By" feature with recordings of soothing sounds to play while drifting off to sleep... ResMed's Press Release -

Cortex Pharmaceuticals : Ampakine CX1739 Improves Respiratory Parameters In Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patients

February 2, 2011 — Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCBB (CORX)) announced top-line results from an exploratory clinical study with its AMPAKINE® compound, CX1739 in subjects with sleep apnea. The study enrolled 20 relatively healthy adults with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, 16 of which were administered a single oral dose of CX1739 and 4 of which received matching placebo for one night. The objective of the study was to further explore safety and tolerability in the sleep apnea population, as well as to assess putative efficacy of CX1739 on a range of sleep apnea parameters assessed by overnight polysomnography.

The study demonstrated that selected oxygen saturation parameters were statistically improved by one dose of CX1739, but the interpretation of these results was complicated by a reduced sleep time during the night following drug treatment. CX1739 did not reduce the mean apnea/hypopnea index (AHI; frequency of apnea or hypopnea events per hour of sleep). However, in the AHI responder analysis, defined as a greater than 40% reduction in the AHI, three subjects (20%) in the CX1739 treatment group were responders, and there were no responders in the placebo group. Furthermore, CX1739 significantly (p<0.05) reduced the apnea/hypopnea time (AHT; cumulative time of all apneas and hypopneas over the night) between the baseline and the treatment night by an average of 21 min, compared to an increase of 12 min in the placebo group. In the AHT responder analysis, defined as a greater than 40% reduction in the AHT, five subjects (30%) in the drug treatment group were responders, with no AHT responders in the placebo group.

There were also statistically significant improvements in a number of blood oxygenation measurements: mean blood oxygen saturation was increased (p<0.01); minimum blood oxygen saturation was increased (p < 0.001); there was a reduction in the total time that blood oxygen saturation was reduced below 90% (p<0.01); and a reduction of the number of times per hour of sleep time that the blood oxygen saturation went below 90% (p<0.05).

Sleep efficiency, the percent of time asleep while in bed for the eight hour session, was significantly (p<0.001) reduced by about 20% after administration of CX1739, although the level of daytime sleepiness, determined by the Clinical Global Impressions Daytime Vigilance test given the morning following treatment, was unaffected by CX1739... Cortex Pharmaceuticals' Press Release -