Diagnosing sleep apnea

A computer scientist from the University of Houston and a doctor at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at Houston have teamed up to create a new, less invasive method of diagnosing sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is a serious disorder that causes a person to momentarily stop breathing while they sleep.

These pauses in breathing can occur many times an hour and can cause low oxygen levels in the blood and chronic sleepiness.

Approximately 24 per cent of men and nine per cent of women experience sleep apnea, but getting a diagnosis involves a procedure called polysomnography, also known as a sleep study.

But one of the difficulties in obtaining a sleep-apnea diagnosis is the invasive nature of current testing methods.

During a sleep study a subject has an average of more than 20 sensors attached to his or her head and body.