Our Somnowell experience

I snore.

My last three partners have been disturbed by this. Over the years it’s meant one of us sometimes sleeping on the sofa. About six months ago, my boyfriend said “it was affecting our relationship” during one of our check-ins. That “shot across the bows” prompted us to lean in to solve it. I say “we” because both of us have tried things.

My (self) diagnosis

My partners have described bouts of snoring and an occasional loud one where I then (apparently) wake myself up and stop for a bit. This sounds like mild sleep apnea and all the conventional wisdom suggests a CPAP machine.

But… I have tried laying on my back and trying to snore. Then when I move my jaw forward into an underbite position I can no longer snore. With a little experiementation, I can find a balance point where on either side of a position I can either snore or not snore. This told me that mandibular advancement devices should, in theory, work for me.

Phase 1: The cheap, crap solutions

I tried the cheap plastic devices from amazon & pharmacist:

Device 1: Generic “over the counter” Mandibular Advancement Device

Where to get: This device is available on amazon under a variety of different brands. It costs between £6-£30 / $8-$40.

How it works: You put it in boiling water and bite into it, making a custom fitting. Then you select how far forward you want to advance your lower jaw by sliding the lower mouthpiece forward.

Our experience:

1. It is a big, uncomfortable item in your mouth. I didn’t really ever come to not notice it and I would often wake up (or be woken up) to find it laying on my pillow where I had apparently ejected it in my sleep.
2. I also found it put a lot of pressure on my teeth. I’d find that my teeth would ache for the first hour of the morning, making me nervous about long term damage.
3. My partner reported that when it was in, the snoring was completely eliminated. He said I slept so quietly that he occasionally checked to see if I was breathing.
4. However, when I roll over onto my back, my mouth often falls open and then my jaw drops out of the lower mouth piece and is no longer pulled forward… the snoring starts up again. This seems to be a fundamental problem with this design that can only be rectified by wearing one of those chin strap things that keep ones mouth closed. I have tried it and this can’t work for me as I find it a bit claustrohobic and can’t sleep wearing something like that.

This was a failure for us, but it did prove the concept — mandibular advancement works for my body… if I could just get it to practically work for me.

Device 2: Snoreze

Where to get it: I bought it in Boots the chemist, UK for £35($45), but I suspect it is available in many places.

How it works: Like the device above, this is moulded by boiling it and biting on it. Where it is different (and better) than the device above is that the top and bottom piece are attached with plasic ribbons or strips allowing them to hinge open and closed.

This means that (in theory) it should work even if your mouth falls open, solving one of the big problems of the device 1 above. The degree of advancement is controlled by two plastic screws that put pressure on the ribbon, limiting how far back your lower jaw can sit.

Our experience:

• My partner reported similar, but perhaps less good results than the other device, so snoring reduced to acceptible levels.
• The device is a lot smaller than the generic device so should be much more comfortable (but as you will read I had a deal-breaker comfort issue)
• It stayed in place even when on my back and my mouth fell open
• All good then?… Unfortunately no… There must be something in the symetry of my mouth or perhaps there was an asymmetry in the product, but the right hand plastic strip / ribbon that joins upper and lower rubbed against the back of my mouth (that place behind your teeth where your upper and lower jaw meet). I tried to just get over it, but I had a sore worn in my mouth in the morning and repeated nights didn’t improve the situation.
• I was unable to return it and unwilling to gamble another £35 on the possibility of a different one being better.

So close, yet so far.

But, this experiement told me that it must be possible to find a solution that would be more less bulky and woudl work with an open mouth sleeper.

Phase 2: Investing big

Given the above successes and failures, I was done spending $40 and $50 at a time and wasting my money on cheap crap. We had proven the concept, it was time to try finding what the best possible evolution of mandibular advancement devices could do for me.

Somnowell

After a bit of googling, I found out about Somnowell. This is a custom made device that needs custom impressions made by a dentist. I found a local dentist that offered them and called to make an appointment. The receptionist gingerly told me the price — I guess they must get a lot of people make appointments only to have people be shocked and walk away. The price she quoted was around £1500 ($1750 USD).

My business case: This is clearly an absurd amount of money to gamble without any reassurance of it working, but by my logic, I’d proved the concept, if a high end, custom device doesn’t work, probably nothing will.

Also — how do I put a price on my relationship? He said it was bothering him and whilst it wasn’t a deal breaker, I wanted to do everything to show I was trying to solve our shared problem.

Or on a good night’s sleep? I guess one way of thinking about it is if I’m on a long road trip, I could sleep in my car or I could get a cheap hotel. That cost calculus is about £50 for a good night’s sleep. So that equates to 30 nights bad sleep for my partner remediated and it’s paid for… Not that we were spending that, but it kind of makes sense as a justification.

The ordering process:

My dentist made custom impressions, which was not hugely nice. It tasted horrible and was generally a bit uncomfortable, but really no big drama or pain. They also take a measurement of how much advancement — and I think this is something I messed up. The dentist suggested just trying for maximum extension. I was worried that it would be uncomfortable and decided to try to find that “no snoring point” that I mentioned above. We took the measurement just after the point where I could no longer snore.

I was then required to pay half as a deposit and wait “around three weeks”

Unfortunately at about the two and a half week mark, I got a call saying that Somnowell weren’t happy with the impressions and I needed more. It was mildly irritating as I needed to go back to the dentist, but more irritating as I was hoping to get my hands on the product. But I think it’s reassuring that they care enough to push for the best possible result.

The device & our results

The device looks kind of scary — all pointy and made of metal, but it’s surprisingly comfortable.

How it works: The upper and lower pieces sort of snap or pop into your mouth around your teeth. It’s quite secure, but there’s no undue pressure like with the first plastic device. There are two “pistons” that connect the upper and lower mouth piece. They are cleverly placed so that the mouth can open but the lower jaw is supported from falling back; even in the fully open position.

Our experience:

• It is super comfortable. It’s not like having nothing in your mouth, but pretty close. You can certainly get used to it to the point of forgetting you’re wearing it. This isn’t a night one thing, but within ten or so nights, I had got to the point of being really very comfortable and no impediment to my sleep
• I can talk wearing this device. With the original device, it was like having a big plastic gag in my mouth. With the Somnowell, I can talk (almost) normally. It just feels slightly awkward, but really this is nothing
• It doesn’t feel unsexy. The trouble with a lot of these anti snoring aids, is they just look and feel so rediculous that I feel gross and unattractive using them. I appreciate that the reality is that any device that stops snoring is massivley more sexy than the alternative. But those big plastic devices are horrible and cause excessive salivation — I just feel gross. This is small and discreet and I just feel normal — If we want one more kiss, we can do; There’s no taking out a big lump of plastic out and plopping it on the pillow.
• My partner reports greatly reduced snoring… but not eliminated.
  He said with the original plastic device, when it was in, the snoring was stopped completely. With this he says it’s like heavy, rasping breathing with occasional light snoring. It’s manageable and we can both sleep but the snoring’s not eliminated. The pistons are adjustable and at maximum extension, I suspect it’s just on the wrong side of my snoring point. I honestly blame myself for this, because if we’d been more aggressive when taking the advancement measurement, I suspect it would hae been eliminated completely.
• Honestly even with this partial result, the device is so sustainable (in that I can use it comfortably) and it allows us to both sleep better (because my snoring’s kept far below the intolerable threashold), I consider it to be a hugely good investment and I am very satisfied.
• I’ve contacted Somnowell and they say that “the pistons can be replaced with longer ones or if not the lower section can be remade to increase the advancement”.
  So I’ve got an appointment with my dentist. Fingers crossed.
  This is an example of how the inital outlay is paying for itself. With a cheap product, I would have likely got no useful response, but Somnowell responded the same day I asked for help. 5/5

Ultimate Ear

My partner always wears ear plugs since he prefers the silence and is a light sleeper; He uses wax ear plugs that last a few nights. Since this was a shared problem, I asked if he would upgrade his ear plugs to something similarly premium.

I had already bought a pair of custom Ultimate Ears for my motorcycle and know they are infinitely better than anything disposable.

How to get them: He reached out to them via the website and then made an appointment for a person to come to his office to take impressions of his ears. The plugs cost around £100 ($120) and the visit was arount £30($40)

Basically this process involves squirting gloop into each ear with a syringe, waiting for it to set and then pulling them out. These impressions are then sent away and then about two weeks later you recieve the ear plugs in the post. His look a little different than mine (above) as mine are the ones for Motorcyclint and racing and are a little different to the sleep ones.

Our experience:

• He reports greater comfort and better noise dampening than with the wax balls.
• This additional 10% noise dampening, combined with my now reduced snoring through the Somnowell has massively improved our ability to reliably sleep in the same bed.

Final thoughts

So often, buying a thing ends up being a disapointment, but the Somnowell has been really life changing for us in that we used to regularly have one of us on the sofa (often him). This meant he had a bad night’s sleep and I felt crap waking up finding him not there and knowing I’d driven him away. This is one of those expensive purchases, I don’t regret at all. I’m hopeful that with the adjustments that Somnowell proposed that we can get rid of the last of the snoring too.

Update Sept 2024: I’m still amazed at what a difference this thing makes. I woke up the other morning, took the Somnowell out as I thought I was done sleeping. I fell asleep again and my partner said to me after we woke “you were a snory thing this morning”.

It’s such a black and white difference — My snoring is not a problem to my partner when I wear it and she’s very aware of it when I do. I still reccomend this two years later.