Respironics Inc.'s chief executive officer sees his company's market as the perfect conversation-starter at cocktail parties.

A mere mention that the Murrysville firm is developing products to help people sleep seems to draw gaggles of guests toward John Miclot -- most bemoaning their problems getting to sleep, staying asleep, sleeping on business trips, or waking up tired, even after eight hours of shuteye.

Miclot jokes that the cocktail chatter amounts to market research.

But there's truth in his jest.

Respironics, which two decades ago introduced the first medical device to treat obstructive sleep apnea, is now setting its sights on developing products to alleviate other sleep problems. People with obstructive sleep apnea suffer periodic blockages of their airways during sleep, which cause bouts of waking at night and fatigue during the day.

Research has uncovered some 70 disorders that affect people's sleep. What's more, there's increasing evidence that some sleep problems can contribute to diseases, such as high blood pressure and even diabetes, while also diminishing alertness, mental acuity, memory retention and coordination, among other things.

"There's nothing that's going to affect your day more," said Miclot. "There's nobody innovating [to treat sleep dysfunction] other than pharmaceutical companies, and the problem is huge. "

Miclot said Respironics' market surveys show that half of respondents describe themselves as "problem sleepers."

Among those who regale him at parties, "A lot of people try to self treat," using "white noise" devices to block out sounds that might wake them, herbal remedies and other things, he said.

Their difficulties can range from insomnia -- an inability to get to sleep -- to seasonal affective disorder, which can make its victims sleep excessively.

To pursue the market, Respironics recently created a new business unit called Sleep Well Ventures. Unlike the company's current products, some of Sleep Well's devices are expected to be marketed directly to consumers without a doctor's prescription.

The first of its products, an oral appliance to help people stop snoring, is expected to be released within weeks.

Among other possible sleep aids, Miclot said, the new venture is investigating: lighting devices that could help regulate the circadian rhythms that influence when people feel sleepy; devices that could monitor and help adjust core body temperature, which falls during sleep; and devices that might help time people's morning wake-ups to avoid interference with their REM cycles. REM -- for rapid eye movement -- cycles are periods associated with the most restorative phase of sleep.

Respironics conducts research for its sleep products both in its own facilities and at some of the nation's leading university sleep-research centers, including Harvard and Stanford.

Doug Mechlenburg, Respironics' vice president for research and development, is loathe to comment on any of the products, citing competitive reasons.

But he said the new devices were just the latest outgrowth of research efforts that have enabled Respironics to continue to upgrade its core products.

The company's original product for treating sleep apnea, for example (known as a C-PAP device because it provides continuous positive airway pressure), has been significantly changed four times in the past 10 years, Mechlenburg said.

Among the changes was one to make the product's mask far more comfortable, he said. Another was to provide continuous changes in air pressure in response to changes in the degree of obstruction of a patient's airway.

A lapse in innovations for the C-PAP in the late 1980s enabled a competitor, HealthDyne Technologies, to grab a significant share of Respironics' market. Respironics struck back in 1997 by acquiring HealthDyne.

"That taught us a lot," Gerald McGinnis, Respironics chairman and founder, said of the slip-up that allowed HealthDyne to move in. "I think the company's attitude now is that we should obsolesce our own products."

Respironics now aims for new products -- including significant modifications of existing ones -- to account for 40 percent to 50 percent of sales in every two-year period, Miclot said.

To keep the innovation going, the company also upped its research and development budget for this year to somewhere between $40 million and $45 million, he said.

McGinnis, a former Westinghouse Electric engineer, said failing to innovate contributed to the demise of some of the region's large corporations.

Whenever a product replacement was proposed, the big corporations that dominated Pittsburgh a generation ago tended to ask, " 'How much of my existing product is that going to cannibalize?' That was the story of Westinghouse," he said.

While Westinghouse and some of the region's other large corporations did substantial research, they also often failed to translate it into marketable products, he said.

McGinnis noted that Westinghouse, at one time, was "ahead of Texas Instruments" in developing integrated circuits and was "a leader" in developing other technologies, such as liquid crystal displays, that have become ubiquitous in the past five years. "But you don't see Westinghouse's name on any of them," McGinnis said.

At that time, many corporate labs did research without a market in mind.

By contrast, much of Respironics' product research is inspired by market research, said Miclot.

At the moment, that research suggests there's a lot of tossing and turning -- enough that people will "talk for hours" about it at cocktail parties.