A herd of elephants was trumpeting through my dream.
Then I jolted awake and realized it was not elephants. It was my husband snoring.
The strange part was that I had not been hearing that sound for weeks. His snoring had essentially disappeared while he was using eXciteOSA. It came back after I intentionally made him stop using the device for two weeks.
That was not exactly the most sophisticated research protocol ever designed, but it gave us one of the most interesting observations from our 90-day experiment.
About 90 days ago, my husband James and I started testing eXciteOSA by Spring Sleep, a prescription daytime therapy designed to reduce snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea.
I did not want to give you a two-week "it seems to be working" review. I wanted to see what happened after the initial treatment phase, what happened during maintenance, and, because apparently I enjoy experimenting on my husband, what happened when we took the therapy away.
So this is our 90-day eXciteOSA review.
Before we get into it, some important transparency: Spring Sleep gifted James the device for his ongoing sleep journey. If you purchase through my link, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. This article is also not medical advice. What you are about to read includes an N-of-1 case study, meaning one person without a control group. Our experience is useful information, but it is not the same thing as clinical evidence.
You can check out eXciteOSA from Spring Sleep here and use code EMMA15 for 15% off.
What Is eXciteOSA for Snoring and Mild Sleep Apnea?
eXciteOSA is unusual because you do not wear it while you sleep.
It is a removable mouthpiece that sits around the tongue and delivers neuromuscular electrical stimulation, or NMES, while you are awake. The initial treatment protocol involves using it for about 20 minutes per day for six weeks.
The FDA describes eXciteOSA as a tongue muscle stimulation device intended to reduce snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea in adults, specifically mild OSA with an apnea-hypopnea index, or AHI, below 15 events per hour.
That distinction matters.
This is not a device that mechanically holds your airway open every night in the way positive airway pressure does. Instead, electrical stimulation targets the tongue muscles during the day with the goal of improving their function and helping support the upper airway during sleep.
The genioglossus, one of the major muscles responsible for moving the tongue forward, plays an important role in upper-airway stability. Research on electrical stimulation of these muscles gives the underlying mechanism some biological plausibility. In a randomized controlled crossover study, intermittent electrical stimulation of the genioglossus during sleep improved measures of upper-airway obstruction compared with sham stimulation, although that intervention was not the same protocol as eXciteOSA.
So I do not think it is reasonable to dismiss the entire concept as pseudoscience.
That does not automatically mean every device using electrical stimulation works equally well, or that it will work for every person. Those are separate questions.
What Does the Research Say About eXciteOSA?
There is research specifically involving daytime neuromuscular stimulation with eXciteOSA.
In a multicenter prospective study of people with primary snoring and mild OSA, participants used eXciteOSA for 20 minutes daily for six weeks. Among the 115 people who completed the trial, 90% experienced some reduction in objectively measured snoring, with an average reduction of 41%. Bed partners also reported a significant reduction in snoring.
Another study looking specifically at participants with mild OSA found that average AHI decreased from 10.2 to 6.8 events per hour after six weeks of therapy, along with improvements in sleepiness, sleep quality, and snoring. The authors also noted that more research was needed to identify who benefits most and to understand longer-term outcomes.
Importantly, there is also randomized sham-controlled research on daytime tongue NMES. A double-masked trial involving 40 people with mild OSA found a 32.7% reduction in respiratory event index with active stimulation, while the sham group did not experience a significant change. The researchers still called for additional investigation before defining its broader role in OSA treatment.
And the evidence is not uniformly glowing.
A separate mechanistic study found improvements in tongue endurance, sleep quality, and sleep efficiency, but did not find significant improvements in genioglossus activity, snoring, or upper-airway collapse in that particular protocol.
That is the type of nuance I want in a review like this.
There is legitimate evidence supporting daytime tongue stimulation, particularly for snoring and mild OSA. There are also unanswered questions, relatively small studies, and limited long-term data.
That is very different from saying, "Science proves this cures sleep apnea."
It does not.
Why Snoring and Sleep Apnea Matter More Than Most People Realize
If you are reading this because your partner snores, you may primarily care because you would like to sleep without contemplating homicide at 3:00 in the morning.
Fair.
But snoring can also be a sign of sleep-disordered breathing.
Obstructive sleep apnea involves repeated partial or complete obstruction of the upper airway during sleep. Common signs include loud snoring, breathing that repeatedly starts and stops, and gasping for air. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends talking with a healthcare provider about these symptoms because a sleep study may be needed for diagnosis.
OSA is also associated with cardiovascular and metabolic problems. The American Heart Association has linked obstructive sleep apnea with hypertension, atrial fibrillation and other arrhythmias, coronary artery disease, stroke, heart failure, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes.
For adults over 40, this deserves attention.
Snoring is not automatically sleep apnea, but repeated choking, gasping, witnessed pauses in breathing, or unexplained daytime exhaustion should not be dismissed as simply annoying nighttime behavior.
Our 90-Day eXciteOSA Results
James completed the initial six-week treatment period using eXciteOSA for approximately 20 minutes each day.
After that, he moved into the maintenance phase and used it twice per week.
And during that period, something became very noticeable in our house.
His snoring went quiet.
Even more importantly to me, the episodes where he would suddenly choke or gasp himself awake disappeared.
Before using eXciteOSA, I regularly heard both. There would be snoring, followed sometimes by that sharp choking or gasping sound that causes someone to suddenly jolt awake.
After he began using the device consistently, I stopped hearing them.
That continued for weeks.
Then I decided to make the experiment messier.
What Happened When We Stopped eXciteOSA for Two Weeks?
I deliberately had James stop using eXciteOSA for approximately two weeks.
Let me be clear that I am not recommending this as a treatment strategy. We were curious whether anything noticeable would happen after removing the therapy.
It did.
The snoring came back.
The choking-awake episodes came back.
And the snoring became loud enough that my sleeping brain incorporated it into a dream involving a stampede of trumpeting elephants.
That is particularly impressive considering I have hearing loss.
James noticed changes himself, too. He started waking with a mild sore-throat sensation and initially wondered if he was getting sick. After several days, the sensation kept returning. At the same time, I was telling him his snoring had returned.
None of this proves causation.
This is still one person, without blinding, randomization, a control group, or objective sleep testing during every stage of the experiment.
But as an observation, the pattern was difficult for us to ignore.
Symptoms improved during consistent use and returned after stopping.
Did eXciteOSA Improve James's Deep Sleep?
This is where I want to be particularly careful because it would be very easy to give eXciteOSA credit for something that I do not believe the evidence supports.
James has made a major improvement in his measured deep sleep.
He went from readings near zero to regularly seeing around 30 minutes.
But when we stopped eXciteOSA for two weeks, his deep-sleep numbers did not collapse.
That is important.
If eXciteOSA were primarily responsible for that improvement, removing it should at least give us a reason to expect those numbers to worsen. That did not happen.
Based on our current observations, I suspect other variables in James's sleep routine are doing more of the heavy lifting there.
And that is perfectly fine.
eXciteOSA is not marketed as a deep-sleep enhancement device. Its job is to address snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea.
I am not going to give a product credit for a job it never applied for.
eXciteOSA Cost and the 90-Day Replacement Mouthpiece
Now we need to talk about the less exciting part: money.
As of September 2026, Spring Sleep lists the eXciteOSA Starter Pack at $1,650 before discounts. The company currently offers a 90-night risk-free trial.
You can use my Spring Sleep link here and code EMMA15 for 15% off.
But there is another expense you need to know about before buying.
The mouthpiece is a consumable and should be replaced every 90 days.
At the time of writing, Spring Sleep lists a replacement mouthpiece for $150 as a one-time purchase, or $135 when enrolled in the three-month subscription. The current starter pack also includes the first three-month replacement subscription free, after which the $135 subscription price applies unless pricing or promotions change.
I genuinely wish we had understood the ongoing replacement cost more clearly when we first started testing the device.
This is not a one-time hardware purchase.
You are buying the device and committing to an ongoing consumable if you continue therapy.
That needs to be part of your decision.
Is eXciteOSA a CPAP Alternative?
This is where terminology can get people into trouble.
eXciteOSA is FDA-cleared for snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea in adults. It should not be treated as a universal replacement for CPAP or other positive airway pressure therapy.
For someone with mild OSA who strongly dislikes the idea of sleeping with a mask, hose, oral appliance, or other equipment at night, daytime therapy is obviously appealing.
You do the work while you are awake, then you go to sleep without wearing the device.
That is one of eXciteOSA's biggest practical advantages.
But moderate or severe sleep apnea is a different conversation. Positive airway pressure remains an established treatment for OSA, particularly moderate to severe disease, and treatment should be based on an appropriate sleep evaluation.
In other words, do not diagnose yourself based on snoring and buy a device because you dislike the idea of CPAP.
Find out what is actually happening first.
Who Might Be a Good Candidate for eXciteOSA?
Based on its FDA-cleared indication, the research, and our experience, eXciteOSA makes the most sense to discuss with your healthcare provider if you have primary snoring or diagnosed mild obstructive sleep apnea and strongly prefer a treatment that does not require wearing equipment overnight.
You also need to be realistic about compliance.
During the initial phase, this requires approximately 20 minutes every day for six weeks.
Twenty minutes is not terrible.
It is also not nothing.
You have to put the device in your mouth, run the therapy, and remember to do it consistently. After the initial treatment period, the maintenance schedule becomes much easier to fit into normal life, but that can ironically make it easier to forget.
The app includes reminders, and you can obviously set your own.
But therapies that require consistency only work when you actually use them.
When You Should Get a Real Sleep Evaluation First
If your partner sees you stop breathing, you regularly wake up choking or gasping, or you are exhausted during the day despite spending enough time in bed, please do not assume this is "just snoring."
Get evaluated.
The NIH specifically lists loud snoring, breathing that starts and stops, and gasping for air among the signs of sleep apnea. A sleep study may be necessary to determine whether sleep apnea is actually present and how severe it is.
And this matters because treatment should match the condition.
A device designed for mild OSA should not become an excuse to avoid finding out that you actually have moderate or severe disease.
My 90-Day eXciteOSA Review Verdict
After 90 days, I think eXciteOSA most likely did the specific job it was designed to do for James.
His snoring improved.
The choking-awake episodes disappeared while he was consistently using it.
When we intentionally removed the therapy for two weeks, both came back.
What did not appear to depend on eXciteOSA was his improvement in deep sleep, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
This is still anecdotal evidence from one person. It does not override randomized trials, sleep studies, or individualized medical care.
But when I combine our experience with the existing clinical research and the fact that the device is FDA-cleared specifically for snoring and mild OSA, I think it represents a legitimate option for the appropriately diagnosed person to discuss with a sleep professional.
The biggest drawbacks are the up-front price, ongoing mouthpiece replacements, and the need to consistently complete the therapy.
The biggest advantage is obvious: you do not have to sleep wearing it.
If you want to learn more, you can see eXciteOSA through Spring Sleep here. My discount code is EMMA15 for 15% off.
And if you are gasping awake, witnessing pauses in your partner's breathing, or feeling exhausted despite getting enough hours in bed, start with a proper sleep evaluation instead of guessing.
Your health is an investment, not an expense.
About the Author
Emma Mattison is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach, and Functional Aging Specialist and the owner of Emma Mattison Fitness. Her work focuses on evidence-informed functional fitness, longevity, and holistic health, particularly for adults 40 and older.
For free courses, health and fitness resources, and more, visit the free Emma Mattison Fitness web app.
References
Baptista PM, Martínez Ruiz de Apodaca P, Carrasco M, et al. Daytime Neuromuscular Electrical Therapy of Tongue Muscles in Improving Snoring in Individuals with Primary Snoring and Mild Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2021;10(9):1883.
Nokes B, Baptista PM, Martínez Ruiz de Apodaca P, et al. Transoral Awake State Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Therapy for Mild Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Sleep and Breathing. 2022.
Nokes B, Schmickl CN, et al. Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: Comparing Adherence to Active and Sham Therapy. Randomized, sham-controlled trial.
Wu X, Zhao D, Hu W, et al. Randomised, Controlled Crossover Trial of Intermittent and Continuous Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation of the Genioglossus Muscle for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Thorax. 2023;78(7):713-720.
Moffa A, Giorgi L, Carnuccio L, et al. New Non-Invasive Electrical Stimulation Devices for Treatment of Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: A Systematic Review. Sleep and Breathing. 2023;27(1):103-108.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. eXciteOSA Neuromuscular Tongue Muscle Stimulator: De Novo and 510(k) documentation. FDA device records.
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Sleep Apnea: Symptoms and Overview. Updated January 2025.
American Heart Association. Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Cardiovascular Disease: A Scientific Statement. Circulation.