Sleep Apnea - 7 Tips To Help You Sleep
by Donald Saunders
zone3
If your snoring is keeping your partner awake at night and you're
excessively tired yourself during the day, then you could be suffering
from sleep apnea. This article looks at 7 simple ways to help
overcome your daytime tiredness.
Do you keep your partner awake at night with your snoring? Are
you often tired during the day? Do you sometimes find yourself
suffering from morning headaches, being a bit forgetful, unable to
concentrate and irritable? If so, you may be suffering from sleep
apnea.
Sleep apnea is a very common and often undiagnosed sleep disorder that,
according to some estimates, affects five percent of the adult
population. Characterized in particular by loud snoring and daytime
tiredness, sleep apnea occurs because you stop breathing during
sleep. This can occur literally hundreds of times each night and
your breathing can be interrupted by up to a minute or more on each
occasion.
Your breathing is interrupted either by a physical blockage to your
airway (for example, loose skin in the back of your throat, or perhaps
your tongue, blocking your airway), in which case you are said to suffer
from obstructive sleep apnea, or by a failure on the part of your brain to
send out the necessary signals to the muscles of your body that control
breathing, in which event your condition is described as central sleep
apnea.
It is also possible to suffer from mixed sleep apnea which, as the name
suggests, is a combination of both obstructive sleep apnea and central
sleep apnea.
Both men and women suffer from sleep apnea, although the condition is
more commonly seen in men and, in particular, men who are over 40 and
overweight.
The main consequence of sleep apnea is that, because your sleep is very
light, fragmented and of poor quality, you also suffer from insomnia, or
excessive daytime tiredness. Your partner would probably disagree
and say that the main problem is your snoring, but that’s a different
story!
There are a range of treatments available for sleep apnea (including
surgery in particularly severe cases), but in the vast majority of cases
your quality of life can be improved considerably with a few simple
lifestyle changes and natural remedies. Indeed, in mild cases, this
is often all that is needed.
Here are 7 simple tips to offset the effects of sleep apnea related
insomnia and restore some of that lost daytime ‘get up and go’.
Tip 1. Look at your weight.
If you’re overweight then this is undoubtedly contributing to your
problem. Losing just a few pounds can make a significant
difference.
Tip 2. Avoid alcohol.
Alcohol relaxes your throat muscles and this makes it much easier for
these muscles to ‘collapse’ during sleep and block your airway.
There’s no need to cut out alcohol altogether, but you should restrict
your intake and certainly cut out alcohol in the three or four hours
before going to bed.
Tip 3. Avoid sleeping pills.
Sleeping pills can also relax your throat muscles and cause similar
problems to those seen for alcohol. Sleeping pills, however, can
also cause a variety of other problems as well and there use is not
recommended in cases of sleep apnea.
Tip 4. Avoid tobacco.
Smoking inflames your nasal tissues causing them to swell and restrict
your nasal airway. Ideally, you should give up smoking altogether
but, if this is too high a fence to jump, then try to cut down and, in
particular, reduce your smoking during the evening.
Tip 5. Sleep on your side.
If you’re typical of the majority of sleep apnea sufferers you sleep on
your back, making it far easier for the tissues in your throat, and for
your tongue, to block your airway. Even if you go to sleep on your
side, you probably roll onto your back shortly after falling asleep.
Try propping yourself up with pillows or cushions so that you sleep on
your side. If this doesn’t work then sew something like a tennis
ball into the back of your pajamas. You’ll find that rolling onto
the tennis ball will be quite uncomfortable and it will soon condition you
to sleep on your side.
If you can’t sew, find a shirt or tee-shirt with a breast pocket.
Pop the tennis ball into the pocket and then wear the shirt
back-to-front.
Tip 6. Improve your nasal breathing.
If you suffer from a ‘stuffed up’ nose, then try using a nasal spray to
help open up your nasal airway. Nasal sprays should not however be
used regularly or for prolonged periods, as they can cause damage to the
tissues of the nose.
As an alternative, pop along to the drug store or chemist and buy
yourself one of many very cheap devices that are available today to help
keep your nose open while you sleep. Your pharmacist or chemist will
be happy to show you what’s on offer and to help you to make the right
choice.
Tip 7. Avoid sleep deprivation.
Make sure that you are getting enough sleep and that you’re following a
regular bedtime routine. Also make sure that your bedroom conditions
are set for sleep (the right temperature, quiet, dark etc.) and that
you’ve dealt with the worries of the day and are relaxed and ready for
sleep each night.
One of the major consequences of both obstructive sleep apnea and
central sleep apnea is insomnia, and curing the insomnia associated with
sleep apnea is a major step in the management of the condition.
These are just a few simple tips but you’ll be amazed at just what a
difference they can make.
Copyright 2005 Donald Saunders – Help Me To Sleep
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donald Saunders is the author of a number of health related
publications including: "How To Get A Good Night's Sleep - Simple
Solutions To Help You Rest" Pick up your free copy today and discover
the key to curing sleep
apnea.
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