Many people become frightened when they hear the term sleep apnea. It is true that sleep apnea is an extremely serious health problem, but the good news is that it can be treated and managed effectively. The key is knowledge and education. This article contains treatment advice and health care tips related to sleep apnea.
Improve your sleep apnea by slimming down a bit. Recent research showed dramatic improvements in overweight men who shed 25 pounds over a period of one year to reduce sleep apnea symptoms. In some cases, the weight loss resulted in a cure of sleep apnea where no further treatment of the condition was necessary.
Did you know that sleep apnea is more than just snoring? Your breathing may actually stop, or it may become very shallow, and this could happen upwards of a hundred times or more each night. If you feel you may be suffering from this affliction, you should see a doctor and be properly diagnosed and discuss a treatment that works best for you.
Follow your treatment plan including wearing your sleep mask. Sometimes it is hard for people to get used to the CPAP. For this CPAP therapy to work successfully, you will need four hours each day to use it. If you still have trouble adjusting, get at least four hours and try to add more time each night.
Exercise your throat. Make faces. Stick out your tongue. Rotate your jaw. It might feel a bit silly, but it can actually help people who suffer from sleep apnea. Doing these things exercises the muscles your body needs to moderate its breathing. Studies have shown that doing these exercises a few times a day can make a huge difference.
Do not take sleeping pills if you have sleep apnea. These pills can cause your throat muscles to relax and keep your airways from properly functioning. This can be deadly when combined with sleep apnea. Sleeping pills are a bad idea.
Reduce sleep apnea by shedding excess weight. A number of patients have found that shedding excess pounds is enough to resolve sleep apnea all by itself. Even a nominal amount of weight loss will go a long way in improving your breathing at night.
For people who smoke, the best way to correct a sleep apnea condition is to quit smoking. Smoking is one of the biggest causes of sleep apnea. When people stop smoking their risk of sleep apnea is reduced and they can get a full night sleep within days of quitting.
Stick with a single ordinary pillow when you go to sleep. An over-sized pillow or multiple pillows can actually skew your position. You’ll be resting in such a way that makes breathing difficult. One standard pillow is all you need to avoid having this happen.
The major signs of sleep apnea are loud snoring, choking or gasping while sleeping, significant lapses in breathing, and daytime tiredness. Other common symptoms are morning headaches, restless sleep, irritability, waking with a sore throat or dry mouth and even having more frequent runs to the bathroom at night. If you exhibit these, then you should see your doctor promptly.
If you have sleep apnea and use a CPAP when you sleep at night, do not neglect your filters. It can be easy to forget about this, but you need to make sure your machine operates at maximum efficiency. Wash your reusable filter at least every week, and replace your white pollen filter at least once a month.
Keep a generator at home. If there is a power outage, your CPAP machine will stop functioning. Some CPAP machines have a battery that will kick in if the power goes out but you should invest in a quality generator in case you have to remain without power for several hours.
While it is common sense to avoid caffeine before sleeping, this is especially true for people who have problems with snoring or apnea. This is a simple thing to cut out, just remember that this includes soft drinks, coffee and even some types of coffee flavored foods. This will also help you sleep faster.
Prior to going to bed, it is important to open up your nasal passages. This is so that you get enough air flow. To open up the nasal passages, you may want to use saline spray, a nasal dilator, a neti pot, breathing strips or whatever your doctor may have recommended.
Some sleep apnea sufferers can find relief with a mouth guard, nasal strips or weight loss. Sometimes the way a person’s face is shaped may be causing their air passage to be smaller. When a device to re-align the jaw is used during sleep, more air can be allowed in.
There are several tools available to open up nasal passages that work to varying degrees. You should try several of these to see if any of them work well for you. The cheapest and easiest options are nasal strips, but neti pots are also becoming increasingly common for this type of problem.
Many people who have been diagnosed with sleep apnea sleep on their backs. If this is you, then you should try finding another position to sleep in. The simple switch from sleeping on your back to your your side can help relieve symptoms of sleep apnea and allow you to have a better night’s sleep.
After your diagnosis, be sure to communicate with your doctor regularly. Your physician can give you information, tips and suggestions about dealing with the apnea. If you plan on attempting a new treatment, meet with your doctor a month after trying it to discuss its effectiveness.
As was stated in the opening paragraph of this article, although sleep apnea is a serious medical problem, it can be effectively treated. The key is to educate yourself on the nature of the disorder and to read up on all of the treatment options. Apply what you have learned from this article to help you treat your sleep apnea.
