Significance of snoring and other sounds appearing during the night based on the ECG

Presented study demonstrates that there is a significant difference in sound spectrum between snoring, normal breath and obstructive apneas which is correlated with ECG signal. It is possible to use sound spectrum analysis as a supplementary method to determine the obstruction site for patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) or other disturbances during the night. Correlation between acoustic and ECG analysis might be one of the screening methods allowing early assessment of the severity of various sleep disorders. Several differences have been found between people showing typical snoring symptoms and subjects with some other common sleep syndromes. The acoustic characteristics of snoring sounds and its variability can be fully described using the time domain, by sound intensity and pitch and the frequency domain, using representative formant frequencies, shape and energy ratio measurements. Sounds appearing during the night, in conjunction with ECG monitoring, allow convenient subject assignment to categories described with the level of snoring severity.