Stefan Mileschin

Most people snore from time to time, but it can be a cause for domestic friction and can also affect your health.

Now a team of researchers at the University of Washington claim to have developed a smartphone app to test sleep apnea – that’s snoring to you and me – in your own bedroom.

The app uses inaudible sound waves from the phone’s speakers to track breathing patterns without the need for sensors or special equipment, the researchers claim.

The team said it conducted a clinical study that showed the app recorded snoring as accurately as a hospital test for 98 percent of the time.

The medicos said that untreated snoring can cause people to be at higher risk for dangerous diseases including strokes, heart problems, depression and diabetes.

The app – called ApneaApp – turns Android smartphones into a sonar system that will record minute changes in peoples’ breathing by sending out inaudible sound waves that bounce off your body and then are picked up by the microphone.

The researchers tested 37 people at Harborview Medical Center by putting a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone on a bed overnight.

The results, they said, showed 32 out of 37 patients were correctly classified as having no, mild, moderate or severe sleep apnea.

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