SONA ear device stimulates vagus nerve to cut stress; doctors call for more trials

32h

Summary

SONA is an AI-powered ear device developed by founder Jane Ollis that aims to reduce stress and improve sleep through personalized vagus nerve stimulation.
The device reads heart rate variability and breathing, stimulates a vagus nerve branch in the ear, and adjusts stimulation in 10-to-20-minute daily sessions.
In 2024, 30.5 percent of U.S. adults had short sleep duration, which the CDC links to conditions including obesity and depression.
Ollis says early proof-of-concept studies show strong signals, but doctors say the device is unproven for sleep and want sham-controlled trials.

Dr. Mintimer Missarov said SONA is probably safe with a plausible mechanism but unproven for sleep, and called for a larger randomized trial with an identical sham device.
Dr. Craig Zebuda said the science behind the idea is good but trials must show users actually sleep and feel better, not just better numbers.
Chelsie Rohrscheib said the adaptive approach is potentially more sophisticated but called for robust research in a large, diverse population.
Dr. Hanul Bhandari said personalization is not evidence of efficacy and greater effectiveness remains to be demonstrated.
Jane Ollis forecast that her team's next sham-controlled studies will prove that personalizing the dose makes the difference.

Scientists develop device to reduce stress—but doctors warn there’s a catchnewsweek.com· 32h
A Newsweek article by Soo Kim covers the SONA, an AI-powered ear device its founder Jane Ollis says reduces stress and improves sleep by reading heart rate variability and breathing, then stimulating the vagus nerve accordingly, in 10-to-20-minute daily sessions. Medical experts call the closed-loop approach plausible and probably safe but unproven for sleep, and want randomized sham-controlled trials to show real-world benefit.