Sound Sleep Guide

Archive for August, 2006

Do you know their are simple remedies to aid your snoring problem with items found in your home? There are many solutions to snoring othat require little to no money to purchase.

You can do soft palate exercises as one method to help snoring. These exercises help to strengthen the muscles in your throat that contribute to snoring when they are lax. Many claim that this approach is a favorable one, and it can’t hurt to try. Since a weak soft palate is a common cause of snoring, you can exercise this part of your throat by doing the following workout:

Put the tip of your tongue on your palate. Then, do suck hard on the back of your tongue. When done correctly, you should feel the muscles in your palate straining and tightening. Experiment a little, finding the best way to tighten and release your palate’s muscles. Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be toning up your palate in no time!

Other home remedy advice includes a solution for those who only snore when they sleep on their back. Stop sleeping on your back! This can be accomplished with little trouble by taking a tennis ball and putting it in a sock. Then, pin the sock to the back of your pajama pants. This will make it uncomfortable for you to lay on your back, causing you to naturally fall asleep on your side. Another similar method advocates sewing objects into the back of your sleeping shirts so that you can’t sleep on your back without discomfort.

Many practices that aid a snoring problem are simply to behave in certain ways; don’t drink alcohol before bed, as this relaxes the throat muscles so much that they can come into contact with the other parts of your throat, causing an obstruction. Also, avoid eating dairy products before bed, as the mucus buildup caused can sometimes clog your throat. If you use a lot of pillows, it might be a good idea to limit them. The more pillows you sleep on, the sharper of an angle your air way has to conform to. This can cause obstruction, leading to heavy snoring. These home remedies and advice are only a few helpful tips on what you can do; it’s important to know exactly what you’re dealing with so that you can treat the problem correctly.

While taking home remedies, it’s important to know that not every problem can be solved with home remedies. If your snoring is accented by waking up sweating, gasping for air or choking, as well as feeling generally tired in the daytime, there is a chance that you have sleep apnea, a harmful disorder that requires serious attention. If these symptoms sound like what you are facing, it is important to talk to a health care professional and get a polysomnography test. This test can determine if you have apnea, which can cause such problems as irregular heartbeats and strokes if left unchecked.

If you’re one of the millions of people that snoring, you may wonder what exactly causes snoring. Snoring can be caused by a number of factors, and there are many questions you need to ask to help determine the cause of your snoring and the possible solution.

Does drinking alcohol cause your snoring?
If you drink often, you should try to find out if the problem affects you on a sober night. Alcohol, being a depressant drug, can be the cause of a snoring problem due to the way that it relaxes the muscles in your body. More so than regular sleeping, alcohol can cause the muscles in your throat to relax to a point where an airway restriction occurs. If you only snore when drinking, your best option for fixing the problem is to avoid drinking altogether, or to at least have your last drink more than 4 hours before you go to sleep.

Does lying on your back cause your snoring?
A large percentage of snorers only snore when they are lying on their back in bed. The simple solution to this problem would be to train your body to sleep on your side. While there are many products for sale to help this, they are usually variations on a tried and true method. The basic, simple, and cost effective solution would be to put a tennis ball in a sock and pin it to the back of your pajama pants. The ball will make it uncomfortable for you to sleep on your back, causing you to naturally favor sleeping on your side.

Does being overweight cause your snoring?
Along with the other side effects of obesity, excess weight can cause snoring. This is because fat deposits begin to occur in the neck and throat area, which can get big enough to put a strain on the airway, causing restricted breathing that results in snoring. If this is the reason you are snoring, weight loss is the best solution.

Does using sleeping pills or anti-histamines cause your snoring?
If you use these products before bedtime, similar effects to those caused by alcohol can result in a snoring problem. The relaxation of throat muscles is common when taking these drugs, just as they are with alcohol.

Do your allergies cause snoring?
Allergies can often result in nasal congestion, which can make it hard for your body to get the oxygen it needs. Unfortunately, since antihistamines also cause issues, one of the best remedies for this problem is to just take a decongestant as opposed to an antihistamine.

These are some of the reasons for snoring. However, there are also others. If you still can’t determine why you may be snoring, it may be helpful to speak to a health care professional about the problem. Snoring can be a serious problem. It can cost you valuable sleep and possibly lead to a serious condition known as sleep apnea.

Many people use a sleep diary as a valuable tool to help identify their sleep problems. Sleep diaries can help you discover patterns in your sleep cycle that a doctor can analyze and treat. You should also include a section to record your dreams. A dream journal will help you remember your dreams and in some cases people have learned to completely control their dreams. The dream section may be used by a psychologist to help analyze any psychological problems that may be affecting your sleep. Sometimes sleeping disorders are not all physical. Sometimes the mind can cause them, and in those cases, a psychologist is the best option. Interpreting your dreams may hold the key to getting a good night’s sleep.

Your sleep diary should include the following information:

What You Had to Eat
Sometimes the foods you eat can affect your sleep cycle. Some foods have chemicals that cause dreams, cramps, insomnia, and other symptoms. There are some foods that cause the exact opposite and are good sleep inducers. Recording what you ate that day can help you see patterns that you can try to change.

The Activities During Your Day
You don’t have to be extremely detailed. Just note a basic outline of what was done throughout the day and any significant or stressful events. Some activities can cause sleeping problems. Something that was very stressful can also cause restless sleep. For example, if you decided to exercise before bed, you probably will have a problem going to sleep because of the natural chemicals released into the bloodstream. Your activity throughout the day greatly affects your sleep.

What Time You Woke Up
If you got up too early or slept in too late, your internal sleep cycle could be off. Most doctors agree that getting up at the same time every morning and going to bed at the same time every night is best. It keeps your body on a natural and regular cycle and is one of the best ways to treat most sleeping disorders. If you got up too early, your body will be tired all day. If you slept in too late, your body will have had too much sleep and you will be tired and lethargic all day.

What Time You Went to Bed
The amount of sleep you have at night has A LOT to do with your sleep cycle. Too many late nights will throw your sleep off for weeks. Scientists believe that your brain releases beneficial chemicals in the body, but only when our internal clocks are at about 2:00 AM. We have not yet been able to figure out why this is done and why at that time. Most doctors say that the best sleep cycle is to go to sleep at ten at night and wake up at six in the morning. This schedule keeps your body healthy.

Did You Wake Up During the Night?
If you woke up in the night, write it down. Write down if you did anything when you got up. Did you get up to go to the bathroom, or let the dog out, or did the phone rang, or if you just woke up for no reason. If you can, write down the amount of time it took you to go back to sleep. This will help your doctor analyze your sleep cycle.

Did You Dream and What Did You Dream?
Your dreams can reveal things that are bothering you in your waking life. A psychologist can help interpret these and recommend the proper changes in your life. Depending on your religious beliefs, a psychic or dream interpreter can be called in to do the same thing.

Regardless of who you trust to view your sleep diary, the more details you record, the easier it will be to treat you. Consider other sections you may want to add to your sleep diary. This is only a basic outline that can be adapted to your needs.