Sound Sleep Guide

Archive for February, 2007

Studies are beginning to tell us that there is a connection between chronic headache sufferers and snorers. Is the connection in their triggers perhaps? We are all aware of the fact that certain foods, drinks and other things ones does can all but guarantee a person prone to snoring a symphony for the night. These include drinking milk before bed, having a late large meal, consuming alcohol and having any diary foods late into the evening. The same is true of headache sufferers. They too have foods, drinks and actions that are known to bring on a thumping in their temples that will send them to a dark quiet room until the headache subsides. These often include red wine, chocolate and anything with caffeine in it.
Recently it has come to the attention of physicians and researchers alike that people who suffer from daily headaches are at least twice as likely as those who have headaches only once in a while to also be snorers. A study was done to compare people who suffered the temple pounding pain of headaches a minimum of fifteen times a month and a control group of people who only had infrequent headache problems. These people experienced less than one hundred and four headaches a year but more than two. The results showed that twenty four percent of those who averaged a headache very other day were chronic snorers. The control group averaged fourteen percent nightly snorers.
Once question this raises is if you control the headaches do you control the snoring or is the process the other way around. Must you control the snoring to help banish the headaches. It has all the signs of a vicious circle. Headache sufferers take pain medications to curb their head pain. The problem is that pain relievers are known to increase the possibility that a person will snore. Snoring has serious effects on how a person sleeps. Snoring can wake up the snorer multiple times during the night and so cause a poor night’s rest. This lack of sleep can then cause headaches. One other consideration is that those who have difficulty sleeping may hold on to carbon dioxide at night and this can also be a trigger for those who experience headaches.
One thought currently in the field of sleep research is to conduct further studies that can determine the relationship between snoring and headaches. Are the headaches caused by the snoring noise the person is making? This could explain the morning headaches. Another possibility is that the snoring could be caused by some type of constriction relating to the neck that occurred during a headache. This may lead to the person snoring. The only way to study this properly will be to have the subjects go through major lifestyle changes while keeping a diary that will note headaches and snoring episodes. Only time and more research will tell what the answer truly is, but until then there seems to be no doubt these two afflictions are related.

You may want to stop snoring because you wake yourself up with the noise you make.
You may want to stop snoring out of consideration for your partner or other household members.
As snoring in itself is not a medical condition there will be little your doctor can do to help so you must help yourself. (NB your doctor will of course help you if there is an underlying medical condition that is causing the snoring.)
Sleeping Position
It is known that sleeping on your back makes the snoring and the noise caused much, much worse. Sleeping on your side or front will help to reduce the snoring.
You cannot rely on your partner digging you in the ribs to remind you to turn over – although they almost certainly will – so it is important to investigate techniques that you can implement to ensure you stay off your back whilst sleeping.
There are a number of special pillows available on the market that encourage side-sleeping and discourage back-sleeping. You may want to try one of these to see if it helps you to maintain an optimum sleeping position.
A very old fashioned ‘remedy’ that is effective but possibly a little uncomfortable is to affix something into the back of your nightwear that will dig into your back if you roll over in your sleep. The discomfort will encourage you to roll back on to your side. Suitable objects might be a small, hard ball or a walnut.
Food and Drink
There is no doubt that alcohol makes snoring worse. The relaxant effect it has on muscles and tissues just collapses the airways even further and it is the breath attempting to pass through these collapsed airways that creates the noise of snoring.
Avoiding alcohol in the evening is one key way to cut down on the noise of snoring.
The mucous membranes that line the airways can become very readily inflamed once again restricting the passage of air and causing the characteristic noise of snoring. Mucous membranes can become inflamed through contact with allergens. Known allergens in food are nuts, dairy products and wheat – it may even be that you have a sensitivity to something else. By cutting out suspect foods and tracing any allergies you can improve and reduce your snoring levels.
Excess Weight
I know it seems as if we blame everything on obesity nowadays and for snorers there is a case to be made for losing weight.
When excess weight is carried, particularly around the neck and throat, airways become obstructed and snoring occurs. If you sleep on your back and have a double chin you can perhaps envision the weight of this additional piece of fatty tissue pressing down on your airway causing restriction and snoring.
There are of course numerous other health reasons for losing weight but if none of those appeal perhaps you can find the willpower required simply to ensure that you and your loved ones get a good night’s sleep.

Snoring is the noise made by air struggling to pass through a blocked or obstructed airway. Often the airway is blocked by flabby, relaxed tissue in the throat and there are a number of exercises that can be incorporated into a daily regime that will work to strengthen the muscles and tissues of the neck, jaw and throat to reduce or even cure the problem.
By exercising the parts of the body involved in the physical process of breathing you will make them stronger, more toned and less likely to interfere with the passage of air through the airways. This should improve your problem with snoring.
Any professional singer will know how important it is to practice exercises every day that are designed to keep the airways clear. Singers will work to exercise their tongues, their jaws and their throats – they want to develop strong muscles in these areas in order that they can perform.
As snoring occurs when airways become obstructed or blocked, it makes sense that snorers should consider exercising in the same way as a professional singer to keep their airways and associated muscles and tissue strong and open. Who knows, they may even find that they begin to win the local karaoke competitions as an added bonus.
Following are a number of very specific exercises that can be tried at home –
1. In a very controlled manner, slowly open and close your mouth to its full extent. Make sure your lips meet when closing.
2. Pucker up as if to blow a kiss and hold for 5 seconds before relaxing.
3. Practice smiling, make it big, generous and exaggerated. Once again hold the position for 5 seconds before relaxing.
4. Press your lips tightly together and hold for 5 seconds before relaxing.
5. Press your lips firmly and then pretend to sip a drink making a sipping noise.
6. Stick your tongue right out. Keep it straight and horizontal, don’t allow any drooping.
7. With your tongue sticking right out move it from side to side making it reach each corner of your lips.
8. Practice reaching for your chin with the tip of your tongue.
9. Practice reaching for the tip of your nose with your tongue.
10. Hold a spoon against your sticking out tongue and exert pressure as if to push the tongue back into the mouth. Resist the pressure with the tongue – push back against the spoon.
11. Say ‘Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma’ as quickly as possible being sure to pronounce both letters.
12. Say ”La-La-La-La’ as quickly as possible being sure to pronounce both letters.
13. Say ‘Ka-Ka-Ka-Ka’ as quickly as possible being sure to pronounce both letters.
14. Say ‘Kala-Kala-Kala-Kala’ as quickly as possible being sure to pronounce both letters.
15. Say or sing all of the vowel sounds (A-E-I-O-U) as loudly as you can.
Overcome your snoring problem once and for all – get those muscles of the throat jaw and neck firmed and toned and stop the flabbiness blocking your airways.