Computerized Pillow

This device, a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071003/sc_nm/germany_pillow_life_dc">computerized
pillow, may have a medical justification.  But I
would recommend caution.



Daryoush Bazargani, a computer science professor in Germany, has
invented a device that he
believes can be used to help stop a person from href="http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/snoring/snoring.cfm">snoring.
 The
device uses a microphone to detect and analyze the noise of snoring.
 It then adjusted air-filled bladders in the pillow to
reposition the person's head.

Snoring is one of the cardinal symptoms of href="http://www.sleepapnea.org/" rel="tag">sleep
apnea, a serious medical condition.  In adults, it
often presents as excessive daytime somnolence.  I have seen
people come in for evaluation of depression, who turned out to have
sleep apnea as the primary problem.  Often people with sleep
apnea think of themselves as "lazy" or are perceived and judged by
others as being "lazy."  Contrary to the perception, it may
take a person with sleep apnea prodigious effort to maintain even a
marginal level of daily functioning.  



In children, it may present as attention deficit, sometimes
misdiagnosed as ADHD.  



I should point out that if someone has excessive daytime somnolence,
that person should not mess around with anything less than a definitive
medical treatment...  

Untreated sleep apnea will cause many kinds of
complications.  However, people who snore but who do not have
enough impairment of nighttime breathing to be at risk for
complications, could benefit from a device such as the computerized
pillow.  I suppose the pillow could be an effective treatment
for those with mild sleep-disordered breathing, but I would be hesitant
to recommend that without some kind of objective documentation of
efficacy.  In any case, persons at risk for an overt sleep
disorder should have periodic href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sleep-apnea/DS00148/DSECTION=6">medical
evaluation, even if the use of nondefinitive intervention
(i.e. something other than href="http://www.entnet.org/healthinfo/snoring/cpap.cfm">positive
airway pressure, or href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sleep-apnea/DS00148/DSECTION=8">surgery)
has resulted in some symptomatic improvement.