Frequently Asked Questions
No. It helps you sleep better. The brief, soft whispers are precisely timed to coincide with the natural respiratory pacemaker’s
receptive phase, which is responsive even before a missed breath can be scored as an apnea. The
timing of the soft signal (multiple to choose from to avoid habituation) triggers a physiologic
breath without engaging the ascending arousal pathways, so patients remain asleep.
The chest-worn Body Watch™ continuously records motion, heart rate, oxygen saturation,
snoring, and position. Its algorithms learn each user’s breathing pattern and identify early
deviations (within milliseconds) that predict an impending apnea before oxygen levels drop.
More traditional sleep apnea therapies act mechanically and are continuously engaged for all
breaths, while PST-1 acts selectively and physiologically to deliver an early response to missed
breaths. This is a shift away from the focus on reducing the AHi as an outcome measure
(especially since there is no indication in scoring about a 12 second event vs. a 40 second
event), although AHi was reduced in field trials. The PST-1 is responding early enough to
protect from the episodic hypoxemia or SNS effects/sleep disruption resulting from events. The
PST-1 engages the body’s own respiratory control system to produce a negative pressure
(physiologic) breath rather than PAP.
It addresses obstructive, central, mixed, and positional apnea events.
Yes. The same device functions in diagnostic mode, recording multiple physiologic signals
overnight with treatment (sound intervention) off. This allows accurate, longitudinal
sleep-breathing data collection ( or monitoring of treatment efficacy with PST-1 or other
solo/combined sleep apena treatments) without separate home sleep testing equipment.
Every night, the PST-1 tracks respiratory events, response to treatment, and usage data.
Clinicians and users can review detailed trends over time – closing the loop between testing,
treatment, and tracking.
It’s a prescription-grade medical device, designed to meet FDA standards. Its sensors and
auditory system go well beyond consumer wearables in accuracy and clinical integration.
That’s one of the biggest opportunities. PST-1 offers a completely noninvasive alternative with
nothing on the face or in the mouth, making it suitable for the large proportion of patients who
abandon CPAP.
Yes. It can be used in combination with pharmacologic agents (including GLP-1 medication categories for weight loss and pipeline drugs like Apnimed), PAP, Inspire and other forms of hypoglossal nerve stimulation, oral appliances, and residual event monitoring after upper airway surgery or hypoglossal nerve stimulation. Unlike these other therapies however, the PST-1 treats both obstructive and central events.
Because it both records and treats, the PST-1 can simplify patient pathways – enabling
same-night testing, immediate therapy initiation, and ongoing monitoring without the need for
separate diagnostic and treatment systems. It can also be used to prevent nocturnal hypoxemia during opioid therapy and in hospitals and nursing homes where aerosolized PAP exhaust can affect others.
The algorithms adapt during the first few nights to learn the user’s breathing signature, after
which responsiveness becomes highly individualized and self-optimizing.
Good candidates include:
- Adults diagnosed with obstructive, central, or mixed sleep apnea who are looking for a
noninvasive alternative to CPAP.
- CPAP-intolerant patients who dislike masks, pressure, or noise but still need effective
therapy.
- Individuals with mild to moderate apnea or residual events despite other treatments.
- People whowant a physiologic, adaptive therapy that works only when needed and
tracks results every night.
- Patients interested in at-home monitoring and data transparency, with feedback that
helps fine-tune care over time.
Not ideal candidates include:
- People with severe anatomic airway collapse where airflow cannot resume even with
a triggered breath.
- Those with moderate to severe hearing loss that prevents detection of the auditory
signal.
- Individuals with absent respiratory drive (e.g., high spinal cord injury, severe
neuromuscular weakness).
- Patients unable or unwilling to wearthe smallchest sensor or sleep earphones.
Category-defining device: The PST-1 unifies testing, treatment, and tracking in one
wearable platform, collapsing three fragmented markets into one integrated solution.
- Massive unmet need: 80% of people with sleep apnea remain undiagnosed or
untreated. The PST-1 creates an entirely new entry point and a low-barrier,
noninvasive, and scalable for home use.
- Novel mechanism: Uses precision-timed acoustic neuromodulation to trigger
physiologic breaths before oxygen desaturation occurs. It’s the first therapy to treat
sleep apnea selectively and physiologically rather than mechanically or surgically.
- Clinical and commercial versatility:
o Diagnostic mode: replaces or supplements home sleep testing, easily capable
of multi-night monitoring to improve diagnostic accuracy.
o Therapeutic mode: treats all forms of sleep apnea. Can be used alone or
layered with other treatments.
o Tracking mode: provides longitudinal, objective sleep and treatment data for
patients and clinicians. Adaptive for meaningful outcome improvements.
- High scalability: Simple hardware, software-driven intelligence, and low manufacturing
costs make it ideal for consumer-level adoption, remote patient monitoring, and
deployment.
- Data: Every night of use generates anonymized, high-resolutionphysiologicdata,
which creates opportunities for machine-learning optimization, population health
analytics, and long-term subscription revenue.
- Market disruption: Positioned to capture share from three large markets
simultaneously (home sleep testing, sleep apnea treatment, and remote
monitoring/wearables).
- Moat: Proprietary algorithms, multi-sensor data integration, and physiologicsignal
timing are protected by issued and pending patents, building a strong IP foundation for
acquisition or partnership.