The daily pill that can stop you snoring

Common complaint: Snorers, and their loved ones, could soon be saved by a pill which if taken daily can cure the sleep disorder

It is the cause of marital strife in the bedroom and many a lost night's sleep.

Now scientists claim that taking a daily pill can curb a common snoring disorder affecting thousands of Britons. Researchers have begun trialling a drug which helps manage obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSA).

The condition causes people to stop breathing intermittently during sleep and often snore very heavily. It can also make sufferers excessively tired and moody.

About one in 20 middle-aged men and one in 50 women lose sleep because of severe forms of OSA.

Typically, when OSA takes place, the upper airway becomes narrow as the muscles relax during sleep.

This reduces oxygen in the blood and impairs restful sleep.

The pill, known only by the codename BGC20-0166, is a combination of two existing drugs that affect areas of the brain associated with muscles in the airway and airflow.

In the trial of 39 OSA patients, participants were given a placebo, one of the two drugs that make up the new compound, or one or two doses of BGC20-0166 daily for 28 days.

The apnoea-hypopnea index - a measure of the frequency and severity of breathing pauses through the night - was recorded in overnight studies after 14 days and again after 28 days.

Those who were taking the new pill showed a 40 per cent reduction in symptoms - with patients suffering no side-effects.

Three out of ten people on the new drug had a 50 per cent reduction in symptoms.

The drug is being developed by BTG, a life sciences company based in London and Philadelphia.

Thomas Roth, director of the Sleep Disorders and Research Centre at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and an advisor to the BTG, said: "The results from this trial demonstrate the potential of this drug to decrease sleep apnoea in some patients and normalise it in others.

"Future research is needed to precisely define the role of the drug."

Current treatments for the syndrome include breathing masks worn in sleep which have recently been approved for use on the NHS.

Michael Polkey, a specialist in sleep and respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, in London, said the initial results from the trial were encouraging.

He said: "This is the first drug therapy which may have an affect without changing sleep architecture."

However Marianne Davey, director of the British Snoring and Sleep Apnoea Association, issued a warning. She said: "At the moment, the consensus is that there is no drug therapy that would be completely successful in treating OSA."

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