96: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky - Episode 9696: Sleep Science Today with Andrew Colsky - Episode 96
UK Health Radio Podcast
Host Andrew Kolsky talks with sleep-tech founder Lydia Lung about medical‑grade wearables, home sleep apnoea testing and how AI helps doctors interpret sleep data. The conversation outlines who may be at risk for sleep apnoea and how accurate, multi‑night testing can guide personalised treatment.
42:08•21 Jul 2026
How a Simple Ring Is Changing Sleep Apnoea Diagnosis
Episode Overview
- Medical-grade sleep wearables undergo clinical validation and regulatory approval, making their data suitable for diagnosis and treatment.
- Sleep apnoea can affect people who are not overweight and may present without obvious snoring, especially in midlife women and those with nasal allergies.
- Home sleep tests using devices like rings can reach over 90% accuracy when properly validated, offering a practical alternative to lab-based studies.
- Multiple nights of testing (often three) provide a more reliable picture of sleep apnoea severity than a single night due to night-to-night variability.
- Objective sleep data can distinguish true insomnia from severe obstructive sleep apnoea and help personalise ongoing treatment and follow-up.
“We always say data never align and we probably need to get more data and to figure out the root cause of the sleep problem the patient really has and such that we can tailor-mix and personalize the treatment for the patient.”
In this eye-opening episode, you'll learn about why sleep technology is becoming a serious medical tool rather than just a cool gadget. Sleep expert host Andrew Kolsky chats with Lydia Lung, CEO and co‑founder of Bilan, about how a simple ring can help spot sleep apnoea and reshape how people approach their sleep health.
Lydia explains how her background in medical research on hypertension, diabetes and dementia led her to focus on sleep, because "a lot of chronic disease, especially cardiovascular related, are highly correlated with sleep problems." She breaks down the difference between consumer wearables and medical‑grade devices, stressing that proper clinical validation and regulatory approval give doctors confidence to use the data for diagnosis and treatment.
The conversation digs into what sleep apnoea actually does to the body: drops in blood oxygen, rising pulse rate and blood pressure, and the potential impact on brain health. You’ll hear why snoring raises the odds of sleep apnoea, yet some people have apnoea without snoring at all, and why women in midlife and people with low BMI shouldn’t assume they’re in the clear.
Andrew and Lydia also talk through home sleep tests, comparing the traditional wired lab set‑up with newer devices worn on the wrist, finger or as a ring. Lydia explains how their ring collects pulse shape, heart rate changes, movement and autonomic nervous system responses, then uses AI trained on more than 200 million data sets to identify apnoea events with over 90% accuracy. Crucially, the ring isn’t just about diagnosis.
Lydia describes how ongoing data can show whether treatments like CPAP, surgery or CBT‑I are actually working, helping patients stay consistent with their therapy. As she puts it, "data never align" with assumptions, so objective information can reveal whether someone has insomnia, severe obstructive sleep apnoea, or both. If better sleep could transform your health, what might you learn from a few nights of seeing the truth about how you rest?
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