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Comment by pedalpete | Hacker News Reader

We've been working on this for about 4 years now at AffectableSleep.com - not 40hz, and not light. Phase-targeted auditory stimulation which has more than 10 years of research in humans.

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Very interesting. Do you think this will ever turn into a device that regular people can buy? I've been an insomniac my entire life, and would be very interested in trying something in this space.

Yes, we are building a commercial experience, and I am also a lifelong chronic insomniac, which got me into this space.

HOWEVER, this is not an insomnia device. There are a bunch of "competing" devices that sound similar that promise to help you "fall asleep faster" often 70%+ faster, and looking at all the research they've done, it's BS.

Sorry, I wish I could solve our problem, but this isn't it. However, as far as the getting the benefits of a full night sleep, this does help.

I've been speaking with a lot of insomniacs, and what I often bring up is "do you kinda like it"? We all know we "should" sleep, but I feel a large part of chronic insomnia isn't the "stress" that everyone assumes we have, but just that we enjoy being awake in the middle of the night, pondering, ruminating, etc.

I wonder what people think of the research this is based on https://www.affectablesleep.com/science

Since the site owner is in this thread, FYI there's a minor typo on this page in the 'What does the stimulation sound like?' section; 'illicit' should be 'elicit'.

Thanks so much! Will fix.

There is no information on what do they actually measure in every individual. Without some real-time feedback it seems somewhat not enough basis to deliver the treatment to the intended target. (But if they're hiring...)

P.S. The website design is also imho a bit wacky.

What do you mean "there's no information on what do they actually measure in every individual"? We are measuring slow-waves, the synchronous firing of neurons which defines deep sleep. This is a real-time feedback system, with measured ERPs on a 5-second on, 5-second off stimulation protocol?

Happy to answer any questions, if I'm not understanding your statement correctly.

That's ok. There just seem to be no explicit mentioning of that, that individual differences in real-time will be taken into account, just some textbook style description. Have you considered regulating skeletal muscle tone?

Ok, thanks for the feedback. I thought our "how it works" was pretty clear, but also simple for people to understand. It's a narrow path to wander.

By "regulating skeletal muscle tone" do you mean as an input? Or as a target?

We've mostly focused on neuro, though we did an experiment in Vagal stimulation, but you could never be sure what you were measuring, so we ditched that and focused on the area with the most research.

PTAS (the technical term for the stimulation) has considerable amount of research behind it with impactful results.

Always keen to learn more if there is something in muscle tone you think we should be looking at.

Reduced skeletal muscle tone during sleep is pretty much established. If you find out, that there remains some increased muscle tone which correlates with insomnia or reduces the efficiency of PTAS, you could target it. Though you're already targeting it indirectly via delta waves.

Yes, reduced muscle tone is absolutely established, now I think I know what you're saying. We're often letting the researchers guide the areas they are most interested in. Lot's of interest in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and depression. We're interested in looking at insulin response and other metabolic factors.

Very cool. I’ll take a look!!

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