KISSIMMEE -- A hallway wall in the office of Dr. Najeeb Zuberi is stacked with a row of odd-shaped pillows, each elegantly packaged in a see-through travel bag.
These are no ordinary pillows. It took years -- almost 10 to be exact -- of research and laboratory work for Zuberi, a board-certified doctor in neurology and psychiatry, to design them.
While the Harvard-trained physician has built a successful medical practice -- Central Florida Neurology -- that has treated sleep disorders in Kissimmee and St. Cloud since 1997, he is confident that the pillows lining the walls of his office potentially represent an even greater moneymaking business.
Now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has certified that Zuberi's patented "Sona Pillow" can stop or decrease snoring and provide other significant benefits.
It will continue to be a side business because Zuberi has no intention of giving up his practice. "I love doing research," he says. "I don't want to stop doing that."
Zuberi began research on the pillow in the mid-1990s while on a fellowship at the University of California Los Angeles where he studied sleep disorders.
The arching pillow is designed so that the head will rest on either inclined end. The purpose of the pillow is to maintain sleep in the side position. There is space underneath each incline for a person's arm that will prevent circulation problems. "It just takes a little getting used to," the inventor says.
Zuberi says people who snore or have sleep apnea -- a disorder in which people stop breathing for up to more than 90 seconds -- have 60 percent more probability of having a stroke, heart attack or high-blood pressure.
The pillow is internationally patented and an FDA-approved medical device that may be an alternative to CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machines, which can cost hundreds of dollars.
Sleep Devices manufactured 5,000 pillows last year and sold more than 3,000, Zuberi says.
Worldwide, online sales have been made to customers in New Zealand, India, Hong Kong, Israel, Puerto Rico, Canada and Brazil and other countries, Sommers says.
Zuberi says he wants to petition Medicare administrators to have the pillows covered by medical insurance.
Patty McClung of Kissimmee says she is sold on the Sona Pillow. One of Zuberi's patients, McClung says she experienced her first full night's sleep in years after using the pillow.
Other patients joke that Zuberi's pillow saved their marriage.
Zuberi recently received a beautification award from the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce for his Mediterranean-inspired offices at 506 W. Cherry St. in Kissimmee. Zuberi, who owns the two connected office buildings, says, "We are ready for growth."