Infeasible.
- Where’s the data tracking for ongoing monitoring? How do they know it’s set up properly?
- How do they keep the sound down? Some of the current CPAP designs’ size is sound dampening.
- How do they generate enough air pressure for 8+ hours? Is it variable? If this was so “easy”, why does my CPAP require a 12v converter or a marine battery to run?
- In-nose appliances cause severe irritation, which is why they’re the last-resort.
- What happens when you roll over and cover the intake with a pillow?
- How do you get the water in it for humidity control?
- Without a hose, how will it measure pressure accurately? (the system of motor-hose-mask-lungs creates the positive pressure system… otherwise you’re using negative pressure to fill the lungs…)
Also… snorning
I was expecting this to be Yet Another Well-Known Fake-Ass-Bullshit Snoring “Cure” like the chinstrap, or the nasal dilators, or the pillows, or the over the counter mouthpieces, etc etc.
(By the way, ALL of those work, a little. Maybe. Sorta. OK, maybe, if you luck out, the mouthpiece-type things MIGHT work, and might not give you TMJ. And if they work for you, Mazel Tov.)
But if you have real live Sleep Apnea, in other words, you stop breathing and then resume, gasping for breath, chances are they will not work very well.
In any case, SEE A REAL LIVE DOCTOR and get tested, diagnosed, and treated. If you don’t, your chances of heart attack and stroke and related such bad things are greatly increased.
Yes, everyone kinda hates the CPAP machines, because they make you look stupid, because you might get freaked out in your sleep and rip the mask off, because the masks leak, because the machines are bulky and kinda noisy (although in the last 10 years, the size and noise have been reduced DRAMATICALLY), etc, but CPAP is still what doctors call a “gold standard” treatment – it works REALLY well. Better than surgery. Better than even expert-made mouthpieces (most of the time).
Wait. Are you suggesting that a revolutionary new gadget that’s crowdfunding on IndieGoGo may not be all its creators claim it to be?
Unpossible!
It saved my life. I was starting to microsleep when driving. I’ve got a bunch of other unrelated neuro problems, but at least I’m well rested now.
The thing is, I know five people who were given CPAP machines. Four don’t use them because they tried them for a while but found they were losing sleep while using them. One actually told their doctor that they don’t use the machine. When doctor’s ask if you have sleep apnea, they ask, “Do you have a CPAP machine?” and “Do you use it?” A lot of people just don’t. If it was making people actually get more sleep and feel better, I think more people would probably use it. I’m not that convinced they work half as I’ve been told they do (that is to say, that they would exactly that well for some people but don’t seem to help a lot of other people).
I would really like this to be legit but it sounds a bit too good to be true. Add to that, your reward is a coupon for when the devices are commercially available rather than the actual device means they could deliver the coupons but never make it market and still say they delivered what was promised (your coupon). Also, reading through the comments, it looks like some folks have been digging up info about the founder’s past business issues and have questions about the current business.
On top of that, these are single use (one a night) which adds up to a lot of plastic going into landfills.
I put them on follow. If they ever make it to market I will give it a try. No need to risk your money at this point.
We’ll see if it works. If so, I’m disappointed that this design is a new-every-night consumable. I find it hard to believe that is driven by design concerns, and not filthy lucre.
It took me almost 2 months before i got over the extreme discomfort i felt before I settled into to using my CPAP. It may well be that they work for some people and not for others. However if people are using them for a while and giving up there is the possibility they never got past the threshold of the number of hours of effective use per night and sustained that over a number of days to actually be able to tell that they did or did not work for them.
As for the device at hand in the article I am willing to try it if they ever get to market but I don’t have high hopes. Perhaps it will work well for travel purposes. It would be easier to carry a set of these that a full sized machine.
I use an ASV because I have mixed apnea. I would love something that didn’t take up half my suitcase when I travel (Looks like I’m only packing underpants again!"), but I’m an outlier whenever these new gadgets pop up.
sad beep
Hi Mark,
Very disappointed in you for being such an un-skeptical shill for an Indiegogo project that is almost certainly vaporware! From their website: “Given this anticipated disruption, it will not always be in Airing’s or your best interest for us to publicly announce many of the trade secrets or specifics of our development. As excited as we may be to share which engineers we work with, materials we incorporate, or equipment we consider utilizing at certain stages, doing so could breach contracts, impede our progress, and significantly delay Airing’s release to the public. That’s something we cannot risk.”
Sounds like a good cover story for a less than viable product.
Also, you stated that cpap machines are: “expensive, big, cumbersome, uncomfortable, and depressingly ugly”. This is really bad and inaccurate information. Most machines are paid for by insurance, so the cost is effectively zero. And the machines are nice looking, and work well, and when paired with a comfortable mask, are actually quite comfortable, and that’s not to mention not dying, which is fairly uncomfortable!
Look up Z1 cpap and you can see how tiny and elegant a Cpap machine can be. Or look at the Resmed or Respironics Cpap websites and see how small and elegant modern cpap machines have become.
Modern Cpap machines track sleep and breathing data, and auto adjust air pressures on both the inhalation and exhalation so that obstructive sleep apnea is eliminated. There’s no way that the Airing device will be able to do this. And many people with sleep apnea require high pressures in the range of 12-18 cm. of pressure, which no tiny machine regardless of magical technology will be able to generate.
I normally appreciate your quickie reviews of tech gadgets, but this one seemed more like a PR piece for Airing.
There’s no way that Airing will be able to produce their devices and sell them for $3 each. And that’s $90 a month even if they do. How does paying $1080 per year end up being cheaper than owning a device that even if you paid for it retail, might cost $500 and last for years?
It’s important not to spread medical disinformation. Cpap isn’t perfect, but right now it is the gold standard for treating sleep apnea, and more important, it works and it’s available NOW!
As neat as this looks, if a forceful pump really can be scaled down to that size, the consumable nature of this is really weird. You buy a new one for each night, and throw it away the next morning. It’s not even “send it back and we’ll replace the battery.”
That said, this presumably means that they really do think highly of their idea:
- If it doesn’t work well, no one will be re-upping their supply
- They’re terrified that if people get to hold on to their $3 device and it works as well as they hope, they’ll only sell one to each customer
Those two points indicate a large about of faith in their own product: if they were shadier, I would have expected a migh higher price point than $3.
So my hope is that this technology can be proved to work, and someone will work out how to hack a new battery into used ones, or will create an open-source alternative.
The last couple times I travelled, my cpap carry bag was not counted against my carryon limit because it is a medical device.
There definitely could be a communication issue, with doctors telling people this will improve their sleep and make them feel less tired when they should be saying something like, “This will make you better off in the long run, but some people have a long adjustment period.” I don’t really know. I do know that where I live if you go back to the doctor and tell them that you aren’t using the machine then they have to report you to the ministry of transporation and you probably lose your driver’s license, so it is pretty much impossible to believe that doctors actually have any idea how many people use the machines.
That Airing site has a lot of images of people with this thing in their noses and some words and not much else. I consider it equivalent to the Window Socket gizmo, which was a similar tiny thing that promised big benefits which were physically impossible to realize.
If they had at least one image of what’s inside the package, then I might have a slight chance of believing that it’s plausible.
But fools and their money are not to be found together long. I hope the “creators” funnel that money into something worthwhile like hookers and blow.
Any chance those are backer rewards?
The really important thing to know about CPAPs is that you need to experiment to find the right mask fit for you. Doctors don’t emphasize this nearly enough. If you can’t get used to it after a month or two, go back (to the equipment supplier, not the prescribing doctor) and ask for a new one. There are a million billion different models and you’re expected to go through a couple before you find the right one, so any insurance that covers CPAPs should also cover extra masks. It took me three go-rounds before I found one that really worked for me, but now that I have, I use it every single night without difficulty.
Also, if you have a beard of any thickness and want to keep it, don’t even bother with the full-face masks. They’re the best default option for most people, but not you. Go straight to one of the nasal models. I use a standard nasal mask (covers the whole nose) and find it most comfortable if I keep my mustache trimmed short, but my father never trims anything and is perfectly happy with a nasal prong (in-nostril) mask.
Indeed. It was more convenient for me to put it in the suitcase anyway, but most airlines have an explicit “medical device” exemption for carryon limits.
Am I really the only person that was reminded of the villian from Ultraviolet?
