Frequently Asked Questions (for the iPhone)

Introduction:

This FAQ was written to support “Snoring U”, v 4.0 for the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad.

Q1: Do I need to connect the device to its charger while it monitors my sleep?

A: It is preferred however not mandatory. A fully charged iPhone 3GS will drain about 20% to 30% of its battery over a period of 8 hours while using SU. If you choose to record the entire sleep session, SU will drain more but again, a fully charged battery should suffice. Using an iPhone 4 will give you better millage.
The answer assumes that your device "goes to sleep" automatically and turns off the screen.

Q2: What can be done to prevent cellular phone radiation from affecting me when I sleep close to the iPhone?

A: When using SU, you may prevent cellular phone radiation by switching the iPhone to "Airplane Mode" before going to sleep (first option in the iPhone's "Settings") Don't forget that in this mode, the iPhone will not function as a phone and that you need to turn the "Airplane Mode" off after you wake up.

Q3: How does SU nudge me when I snore?

A: SU nudges you either by playing a pre-recorded clip of your choice, or by vibrating the iPhone, or by doing both. You may control the way SU nudges via the SU Setting screen. Note that vibration is not available on iPad or on iPod Touch.

Q4: Can I modify the clip played by SU for nudging me when snoring is detected?

A: Yes. This can be done via the SU Setting screen. You may use one of the factory supplied clips, or record your own clips. You may also control the clip's volume.

Q5: Is there a way for SU to nudge me without waking my partner?

A: Probably yes. This may be achieved by setting SU (via the SU Setting screen) to nudge you by vibrating the iPhone without playing the pre-recorded clip. Another way is to decrease the clip's volume (via the SU Setting screen). However, this depends on how sensitive your partner is.

Q6: Can I adjust SU to ignore background noise?

A: Yes. If you have set SU to use "Dynamic Threshold" you do not need to worry about that. If you prefer to set the threshold manually, you can achieve this by modifying the Sensitivity parameter in the SU setting screen assuming the background noise does not change much during the night.

Q7: Where exactly should I place the iPhone for monitoring my sleep?

A: Generally you should place it somewhere near your head. It should be close enough to detect your snoring and close enough to effectively nudge you without disrupting your partner's sleep. You may find the optimal distance for your convenience by asking your partner to do some experiments with SU while you sleep. For example, your partner may move the iPhone while you sleep, and experiment its sensitivity to your personal snoring by observing the noise indicator on SU's main monitoring screen. Your partner may also adjust the volume of the nudge clip to best fit the location you chose for placing the iPhone. If you prefer to use the vibration feature, you may want to attach the iPhone to your body (perhaps with an armband) or under your pillow. That is, if you are not worried about damaging the iPhone if you roll and toss around during your sleep.
Note: The position of the microphone on the device you are using is also important. You normally want the microphone to be pointed to the general direction of your head... On the iPhone, the microphone is at the bottom near the "home" button. On the iPad the microphone is on the upper side far away from the "home" button. As for the iPod Touch: for the older generation iPod Touch devices, you need to attach an external microphone in order for SU to work.

Q8: How do I make sure that the “nudging” feature of SU really works?

A: You may simulate the nudge in the following way; Press the "Start" or "Continue" button of SU and watch the needle on the noise indicator; Make a sound that will keep the needle well in the red area of the dial for about 2 seconds, then be quiet for about 3 seconds. Repeat this for 4-5 times until you hear the "nudge" clip and/or the vibration. You should also be able to see how the "nudge" algorithm advances by seeing the red progress bar advancing inside the gauge.

Q9: May I use SU for monitoring only (without nudging me when I snore)?

A: Yes of course. If you turn off nudging altogether (via the SU setting screen), SU will not attempt to nudge you if you snore. It will only listen to you and keep track of the sound during the whole night. You will be able to view a graph of the sound and maybe listen to portions of it after you wake up and perhaps learn more about your sleep pattern and how noisy you are.

Q10: Can SU help people who suffer from sleep apnea?

A: The current version of SU cannot directly identify sleep apnea or other sleep disorders. However if you examine the graph carefully, you may be able to identify suspicious incidents of sleep apnea and other problems. If you also record your sleep and listen to these suspicious areas, you may find better clues to the problem. An example for a suspicious sleep apnea incident may be an area of the graph (zoom to max) where you clearly see few rhythmic spikes of noise followed by a relatively long silent period, followed by an even higher single spike. If you are not sure, take this to your doctor and show it to him/her.

Q11: How can I check how noisy I am during my sleep?

A: After waking up you may examine the sleep session by going to the History screen and selecting your session. The Summary screen displays few statistics. In particular, watch the "Average Noise". You may also examine the graph of noises you made during your sleep. If you want to compare noises you made in different nights, it is advisable that you place the iPhone in the same relative position every night so that the measured noise is not affected from different distances to your mouth, etc.

Q12: How can I know if SU actually helped me stopped snoring?

A: After waking up, you may examine the graph on the SU screen, and look for indications for nudges done by SU for stopping your snoring. You may also examine the graph in more detail by zooming into certain sections in the graph.

Q13: What happens if I get a phone call or an SMS while I sleep and while SU is working?

A: It depends if the user answers the phone or ignores it. If the user ignores the phone, SU will continue. The history graph will reflect the phone call as an external event. If the user answers the phone, SU will restart when the phone conversation ends and the user will have to press "Start" again.

Q14: May I sleep with SU and use the iPhone build-in Alarm Clock?

A: Yes of course. The Alarm will sound and will also be reflected in the historical graph as an external event.

Q15: What happens if I wake up in the morning and forget to stop SU?

A: It will stop recording data and sound by itself after 12 hours of use.

Q16: How much space does SU uses in memory and on storage?

A: (1) Runtime Memory: SU takes very little memory when it runs. However, when displaying this history and graph of a long sleep session it may take quite a lot of memory and if other large apps are running in the background, they may cause some unexpected behavior to SU.
A: (2) Storage Space: SU itself consumes very little storage space on the device. However, the recordings of long sleep sessions may accumulate and consume a lot of storage. Each long sleep session takes few megabytes of data + about 80 megabytes of recorded sound. If you do not clean your sleep session history, the storage will accumulate and may fill up all available space on your device.

Q17: What happens if I quit or kill the app while it is working? Would I lose any session data?

A: If you quit SU (by pressing the "Home" physical button), SU will stop monitoring the noise and the sleep session will be terminated. The session data is not lost since SU updates the data files before it really exits. However, if the application exists abnormally, some data (from the end of the sleep session) may be lost because it had not been saved in time to the permanent storage.

Q18: How do I transfer or email a sound file from a sleep session?

A: The current version of SU does not support it. You can only listen to recorded sound from inside SU.

Q19: What is the sound quality of the recorded sleep session?

A: The sound is recorded on one track at 8000 Hz. It is done with a narrow band speech codec which is very economic in storage and is good enough for SU.

Q20: I am using a CPAP machine. May I use SU to alert me if the mask falls from my face?

A: It depends. If this is a modern CPAP that does not make a lot of noise, and you are likely to start snoring when the mask falls, then yes - it will probably work just fine and you'd better set a very loud alarm for this case because you need to fully wake up and re-arrange the mask.

Q21: Does SU continue to work when in the background (relevant for iOS 4.x) ?

A: No, it is designed to work in the foreground only. if you bring another application to the front, SU will stop working and will automatically be moved to the background. If you then bring it to the foreground, it will start a new sleep session.