Sound Sleep Guide

Archive for August, 2006

Do you, or does someone you love have a snoring problem? Snoring is a relatively common occurrence with as many as 40% of all adult Americans snoring frequently. What most people fail to realize that there are many causes for snoring, and consequently, there are many different types of treatment that can be used to aid the problem.
Heredity:
One of the causes for a snoring problem can be traced to your genes. Unfortunately, our ancestors pass on a trait that may result in you inheriting a narrow throat, which can be a big problem when it comes to proper breathing.
Gaining weight:
While it’s not often talked about, many sneezing cases can be attributed to a weight gain. Excess weight causes fatty tissues to form beneath your skin, coating the body when a weight gain occurs. Fatty tissue in the neck can cause your throat to become smaller, increasing the likelihood of a snoring problem.
Sex:
Unfortunately, male humans are commonly born with narrower air passages then their female counterparts. This causes a more likely chance of snoring.
Getting older:
As we age, our throats become narrower. Around middle age, we begin losing muscle tone in our throats, with these two factors causing problems that can be the culprits when it comes to a snoring problem.
Alcohol:
Alcohol is a depressant which increases the relaxation of your body, which includes the throat and tongue muscles. With these muscles relaxed, the likelihood of snoring increases greatly.
Medications:
Certain medications, such as anti-histamines or sleeping pills, have been shown to exhibit the same issues as alchol, causing muscle relaxation the mouth and throat and promoting sneezing.
Nasal deformities:
Nasal deformities such as a deviated septum can be the cause of a snoring problem.
Smoking:
A long-term history of smoking cigarettes can be a factor in a person’s snoring.
Sleeping on your back:
A lot of people who have more moderate snoring issues only do so when sleeping on their backs. An easy adjustment for this would be to learn to sleep on your side.
Sleeping with soft pillows:
Pillow increase the angle of your neck, which can lead to airway obstruction, and coincidentally, a snoring issue.
Allergies:
When afflicted with allergies, the nasal passage can be obstructed, causing a lack of air flow and making inhalation difficult.
While these factors can contribute to snoring, they are by no means a definitive list. When trying to diagnose your snoring problem, checking through the factors above can definitely point you in the right direction with where to go to help your issue. After getting a feel for what you think might be causing your snoring, it can be helpful to speak to a health care professional and get their opinion on what is causing your snoring.
Sleep apnoea is a serious problem that can be diagnosed by a heavy amount of snoring, so it’s important to get checked for it by a health care professional if you haven’t been able to fix the problem on your own.

Many people believe that sleep apnea is simply another form of snoring. While it is true that sleep apnea is akin to snoring-both can interfere with the quality and amount of sleep-sleep apnea is a much more serious sleep disorder. Snoring simply involves the sound a person makes while sleeping. Sleep apnea refers to an actual obstruction of breath during sleep. An individual suffering from sleep apnea will stop breathing, sometimes several times a night, and wake up in order to regain breathing.

Individuals who suffer from sleep apnea will usually experience frequent disruptions of sleep during the course of one night’s sleep. Most episodes of breathing pauses will last for approximately ten seconds. These breathing pauses can occur up to thirty or more times an hour. As you can imagine, sleep apnea can cause an individual considerable sleep deprivation!

How do you know if you are suffering from sleep apnea? Surprisingly, many people do not know they suffer from sleep apnea. Many times, sleeping partners who observe the individual’s stop-and-start breathing patterns alert them of their sleep apnea. Sometimes, it is the accumulated sleep deficit that alerts an individual that something is disrupting their sleep. If you find yourself suffering from excessiveness daytime sleepiness, or if you wake each morning with a strong headache, you should consult with your doctor.

Sleep apnea can occur in all types of individuals, although it appears to occur more often in men. Factors which may raise your chances of suffering from sleep apnea can include, weight, blood pressure, and nose and throat infections or obstructions. Individuals who are overweight or suffer from high blood pressure are more vulnerable to suffer from sleep apnea. Other factors that may contribute to the onset of sleep apnea include excessive alcohol consumption and the use of sleeping pills.

Children are also vulnerable to sleep apnea. Children who snore excessively or experience restless sleep may be suffering from sleep apnea. Many times, enlarged tonsils or adenoids cause a child’s sleep apnea.

If you suffer from sleep apnea, the first thing you should do is find out what type of sleep apnea you are suffering from. There are two distinct types of sleep apnea. The most common form of sleep apnea is known as obstructive sleep apnea. This refers to the type of sleep apnea in which the tongue and the throat muscles relax during the course of sleep. When the tongue and throat relax, they block part of the mouth’s airway, causing “choking” noise that can result from lack of airflow that usually rouses the individual from sleep. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids may also cause obstructive sleep apnea in an individual.

The second, much less common form of sleep apnea is known as central sleep apnea. Unlike obstructive sleep apnea, which originates in the mouth and throat, central sleep apnea is caused when the brain fails to send the frequent signals to the mouth that control regular breathing. Your doctor may need to conduct a sleep observation to determine which type of sleep apnea, if any, you suffer from.

If it is concluded that you suffer from sleep apnea, most treatments begin with initiating lifestyle changes. People with sleep apnea are encouraged to follow a weight loss program, eat a healthy diet, reduce their alcohol intake, and cease taking sleeping pills. If you tend to sleep on your back, your doctor may advise you to change sleeping positions to encourage normal nighttime breathing. Special position-changing tools may be recommended to help you change your sleeping position.

If changing lifestyle factors or sleeping positions does not work, a special continuous positive airway pressure (known as CPAP) may be used. A CPAP device is a mask that the individual wears over her or his face at night. The CPAP forces air into the individual’s airway. Other options include surgery to remove tissue blockage, or enlarge tonsils or adenoids. If an individual’s sleep apnea does not respond to conventional treatment, a special surgery known as tracheotomy may be performed. In a tracheotomy, a small hole is cut into the windpipe. The hole is left closed until night, where it can be opened to allow air to enter the individual’s airway without obstruction.

If you or anyone in your family snores you will understand how desperate people are to find a cure for this problem.

While snoring is not a health condition in itself it can be a symptom of a number of illnesses and it can lead to sleep deprivation, mental stress and accidents. It can also lead to the breakdown of relationships.

The possibility of finding a cure for snoring has seen the introduction of all manner of devices to the market – some of which appear to be more effective than others. As snoring has no single cause it follows that it is not going to have a single cure. Different people snore for different reasons and therefore different solutions will either suit them or not.

Before parting with your cash for an anti-snoring device, you must do some research – by understanding how snoring occurs, it should be much easier to assess whether a device can be effective. Look for recommendations from registered medical practitioners; look for testimonials; check to see if there is a money back guarantee.

Check the safety features of the device you are considering. If there are any warnings or contra-indications take them into account – be sure that the product is safe for you to use. Remember, you will be sleeping when you use the device so there really should be no question about its safety record.

Find an outlet where you can touch and feel the devices. You are going to be wearing this gadget for 8 hours a night and it must be comfortable. Check the design and the quality of construction – is it likely to stay on whichever part of the body it is designed for, whilst you sleep? Remember you will be turning over in your sleep – will the device turn with you?

How about the cost? Is the device affordable? If it has a high price tag, what guarantees is the manufacturer offering? What timescale do you have to return the device for a refund? If your snoring is being caused by an allergy to dairy products no device is going to help you – only eliminating the offending foodstuffs will work. Because there are so many causes of snoring it is essential for you to realize that any device, despite the marketing promises, may not work for you.

If your life is being plagued by snoring it is easy to waste money buying gadgets that are doomed to fail. Desperate situations lead to poor decision making processes and for this reason it is important to pause and think about your purchase. Many people make bad decisions because they are desperate.

Be sure you are solving the right problem. Many of the ant-snoring devices are supported by impressive marketing materials that make all sorts of promises – however, the reality of what they actually deliver can be very different.

It adds insult to injury to find you have parted with hard earned cash on a device that does not solve your problem. Caveat Emptor.