Surgery – Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants – Antisnoring device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-27
2001-09-18
Brown, Michael A. (Department: 3764)
Surgery
Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants
Antisnoring device
C128S871000, C602S902000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289893
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Endeavor
This invention relates principally to mechanical sleep aids, specifically to a lightweight pouch secured to the body to alleviate snoring caused by poor breathing due to airway blockage. It acts to prevent sleeping on one's back where the worst snoring occurs due to soft tissues in the throat collapsing and blocking the airway. When one attempts to roll from a side to a back-reclining position while asleep, the device effectively resists the attempt thus avoiding airway blockage.
Those who snore loudly enough to annoy a sleeping partner or who use oral prostheses for correcting sleep apnea or who are unable to tolerate a Continuous Positive air pressure (C-Pap) breathing apparatus need a device that stays in position on the body and acts effectively when one attempts to roll toward a back-reclining position.
2. Description of Prior Art
Sleep clinics recommend an altered T-shirt to prevent sleeping on one's back and consequent airway blockage. It is to be worn overnight by sleep apnea patients. It has a vertical rear pocket encasing several tennis balls.
This and similar devices often do not achieve the desired objective. The T-shirt doesn't fit snugly enough to prevent the tennis balls from shifting out of position. A more serious disadvantage is that the tennis balls are not compressed until a back-reclining position is reached. Also, it may not provide sufficient resistance to discourage a sound sleeper from remaining on his/her back. There is then no assurance that one will fully reverse the rolling action.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
My invention is fundamentally dissimilar to the tennis ball T-shirt and like devices. With the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device that will resist at the outset any rolling action toward one's back and thus prevent airway blockage due to collapsing throat tissues.
The present invention consists of an adjustable, non-slip jacket which is secured to the body at the mid-thoracic region. It is comfortable when one rests on one's side, but provides effective resistance as soon as one attempts to roll from a side to a back-supported position. By training one to remain on one's side, it reduces or even prevents snoring and/or sleep apnea symptoms. It also alerts those whose sleep quality does not improve to consider clinical testing for sleep apnea.
A further object of the invention is to provide a comfortable means of assuring side position reclining while deterring back position reclining. This is accomplished by maintaining gaps between compressible columns located at opposite lateral sides of the device and the body. Rolling toward one's back closes the gap at one of the lateral sides thereby causing one of the compressible columns to impinge upon the body and compel a return to a side position.
REFERENCES:
patent: 132500 (1872-10-01), Sullivan
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patent: 876491 (1908-01-01), Rohwer
patent: 898379 (1908-09-01), Liebhardt
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patent: 3485241 (1969-12-01), Polley
patent: 4958644 (1990-09-01), Rodgers
patent: 5036865 (1991-08-01), Keaton
patent: 5357981 (1994-10-01), Eilam et al.
patent: 5381801 (1995-01-01), McShane et al.
patent: 5383475 (1995-01-01), Austin
patent: Nr-162244 (1949-02-01), None
patent: 7033 (1905-01-01), None
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