Many will be intimately aware of the compounding effect of a snorer sleeping on their back, but researchers in Adelaide are conducting trials of a new pillow that could silence the annoyance.

Sleep researchers from Flinders University and the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health are bed-testing a new pillow which may help alleviate snoring for back sleepers.

The ‘Snore No More Pillow’ has been designed to reduce the volume and frequency of auditory nocturnal emissions.

The pillow is made from memory foam and designed with a slight tilt. The angle gently drops the head backwards during sleep to promote a straighter, stiffer and more open upper airway than conventional pillows, in theory.

Flinders University sleep expert Associate Professor Peter Catcheside is heading a small clinical trial to monitor and assess the benefits for ten chronically snoring back-sleepers.

“In the overnight lab studies we are using sound level measurements to monitor snoring and a motion tracking system to measure head position and jaw and neck angles. These are quite difficult to measure and are not well known, even with a normal pillow,” Associate Professor Catcheside said.

“On normal pillows, back-sleepers may tend to flex their chin towards their chest making the airway floppier and more prone to partial collapse and snoring,” he said.

“The anti-snore pillow is bigger than a normal pillow and is designed with a ramp to tilt the head backwards slightly.”

The director of the company that manufactures the prototype pillow said in his own observations the ‘Snore No More’ design “drastically reduces” loud constant snoring to a more socially acceptable level.