Happy snuffles I call it.
Sawing logs, my partner calls it.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the impact and intensity of a snore differs between the snorer and the snoree’s perception. To my eternal shame it appears that my proposed trialling of an anti-snore gadget is a combination of my partner lobbying for a good night sleep  and Alex and PI ninja-ing to a secret city location to pass the gadget surreptitiously to be sprung on me at the appropriate moment.

Mission Impossible though it may be, the package – alas – did not self destruct in ten seconds. Hence here I am reviewing an anti-snoring device and admitting that perhaps the happy snuffles aren’t such a happy occurrence after all. Reluctantly I sloped into my study to read the packaging of the Relax Snore Stopper while in the kitchen my partners mood lifted in anticipation of a good nights sleep.

The Relax Snore Stopper is a wrist strap device, designed to detect snoring and emit “weak” electrical pulses to gently “encourage the snorer” to change position.
OK, so I’m now half sold and half alarmed.
Half sold in that electrical pulses are preferable to the elbow in the back or the kick of the leg I normally get.
Half alarmed in that – well, just how big a zap are we talking about? The same kind of zap you get on an electro-slim or what you’d get giving the light switch a lick?
Am I going to have to cull the clothes in my wardrobe containing polyester lest I build up enough static energy to power the national grid?
The intensity level of the pulse runs from 1 to 10 and, thankfully, you can test it before you settle down for the night.

But – let me put a caveat on the intensity level issue. The Relax Snore Stopper comes with a gel that you put on the contact pads on the back in order that the pulse emits properly. I will say that again for the instructionally challenged amongst you – contact pads, gel, pulse emits properly. I admit, freely and stupidly to you all, I did the typical gadget geek thing and started playing around with the device before reading the instructions. That is why, dear reader, I would encourage you not to stick the Relax Snore Stopper to intensity level 10 to “see what happens”. What happens is you say “Zaaaaaaaaaaaa” and then scowl.
Titters erupted from the kitchen.

Later that night, I gelled up at intensity 5 and went to bed.
My partner, for the record, enjoying the sport and minute by minute turning into a sadist, made several loud snorting sounds in the vicinity of the watch strap to…and I ironically quote “see what happens”. What happened – aside from her falling about with laughter and me bracing myself for my snoring EST – was… nothing. This is designed to detect snores not piggy oinks. The joke soon got as tired as we were and off to the land of nod we roamed.

Did it actually work?

I trialled it for a week and I’m in two minds on whether it worked or not. I don’t sleep with any jewellery on, so wearing a big watch like device disturbed me anyway and put me into different sleeping positions which may or may not have contributed to the snoring being less. If and when I did snore, I can’t tell you if it zapped me and got my out of my snore position because we were both sleeping.
Catch 22.
I guess I could say that within that week, my partner got more sleep and was less disturbed than normal. I, for my part, didn’t really notice any difference. Then I wouldn’t. As I said, the impact and intensity of snoring is borne more by the snoree rather than the snorer.
My partner says it worked. So, I have to go with the fact it worked.
For that alone, I’d give it an 7 out of ten.
6 for the product and 1 for the comedy zap value.

Priced £19.42 and available from www.co-opXest.com

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