A Software System for Sleep and Snoring Analsis

Snoring is caused by the vibration of some of the tissues in the human upper airway. It has been reported in the literature as a risk factor of diseases such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) and other breathing abnormalities during sleep. Several methods are available for the treatment of snoring, depending on the location of pathology such as “uvulopalatopharyngoplasty” (UPPP) for uvuloal snoring and “radiofrequency tissue volume reduction of the tongue” for tongue based snoring. However, determination of the treatment success is a common problem for both snoring and apnea patients. It is possible to assess the medical treatment by analyzing the snoring sounds. A software system has been developed to analyse the whole night respiratory sound recordings, to compute related statistics and to assert the success of medical treatment in terms of objective criteria. The system uses a formerly developed algorithm that detects each snoring episode automatically. The sound recordings were taken synchronously with polysomnography recordings from patients that are suspected of OSAS pathology in the Sleep Studies Laboratory of Gülhane Military Medical Academy. The designed system uses polysomnography information for improving sleep analysis studies such as determining the relationship between snoring and OSAS.