This article can help people who are suffering from sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can cause extreme problems for those who do not treat it. However, this condition can be managed with the proper treatments. Go over all the sleep apnea tips in this article and use the advice to craft a plan to help you in your own life.
Try your best to lay off tobacco and nicotine products. Cigarette smoke can irritate your upper airway causing it to swell up, subsequently hindering your ability to breath during the night. Quitting smoking could therefore, significantly improve your sleep apnea symptoms and will also improve your body’s overall health and your feelings of well-being.
There are known risk factors for sleep apnea. Some of obstructive sleep apnea risk factors are being overweight, a smoker, male, related to someone with sleep apnea or being Hispanic, Black, or a Pacific Islander. If you have one or more of these risk factors, you are more prone to being diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Make a sleep schedule and keep to it. By sleeping at regular intervals and times, your body gets used to a pattern and takes advantage of it. If you are not getting quality sleep on a regular basis, your sleep apnea may worsen. Make sure to go to bed at a similar time every day and try to sleep a fixed amount of hours.
Sleep apnea is a serious condition that can be improved by losing weight if you are obese. Losing about 25 pounds can dramatically improve this condition. For some people that will cure the problem, for others it may just help improve the symptoms that you are experiencing. Try to eat healthy and make sure to get enough exercise every day.
If you think that you may have sleep apnea, set up a video of yourself as you sleep. Just be sure that the video recorder has sound capability. When you wake up, look at the video, and if it seems like something other than snoring is going on, it may be time to go to the doctor.
Although there are many things, you can do yourself regarding sleep apnea, don’t forget the help of the medical community. When dealing with a problem as serious as sleep apnea, you need to seek the help of a doctor as well as a sleep clinic in order to avoid any serious medical problems.
Try to slim down. Sleep apnea is exacerbated and sometimes even caused by obesity. Try losing enough weight to shift your BMI from obese to just overweight or even healthy. People who have lost weight have improved their sleep apnea symptoms, and some have even cured their sleep apnea completely.
Talk to your doctor before using a humidifier, mouth guard or nasal strips in conjunction with your CPAP sleep mask. Using a CPAP can initially be hard to get used to, but the moist, comfortable air from a humidifier will make the therapy more soothing. Try and get a CPAP machine that has a humidifier built into it; your doctor should be able to point you in the right direction.
Your nasal breathing may contribute to sleep apnea. If you have a stuffy nose, make sure that you help open your airways with a nose spray. Your local drugstore sells over the counter sprays that are great for this purpose, but feel free to ask a pharmacist for help choosing the right one.
To lessen the severity of your sleep apnea at night, move around more during the day! Studies have shown that prolonged inactivity during the day will cause fluid-shifting and airway narrowing by the end of the day, when you lay back or down. To avoid this complication of sleep apnea, get up and stretch at least once every hour.
Because sleep apnea is caused by weak throat muscles, strengthening these muscles makes good sense. You can learn a bunch of exercises that can help you get rid of sleep apnea.
Do not give up if the first treatment you try does not work. Give each treatment a few weeks before you decide to give up and move on to the next treatment. Finding the right solution can take some time, but you will be glad you went through this process.
Avoid sleeping pills and cold medicines if you suffer with sleep apnea. Taking anything that makes you drowsy will also relax the muscles of the airway passage and this can cause blockages and interruptions. Try getting into a solid routine that will prepare your mind and body for sleep instead.
When suffering from a problem like sleep apnea, you should always check out the basics of your life first. If you smoke, overeat, eat late at night, or ingest high quantities of caffeine, simply changing these life habits may be enough to improve your overall sleep situation without any surgeries.
There are some dental devices that are available to help manage your sleep apnea. A tongue retaining device or a mandibular repositioning device both will help open up your airway to help reduces your sleep apnea. They work by repositioning your jaw or tongue so that your airways are not restricted while sleeping.
Mild to moderate sleep apnea symptoms can be greatly reduced by exercising regularly, eating a nutritious diet and maintaining healthy sleep patterns. All of these lifestyle choices help you get more restful sleep, stay at a healthy weight and have a greater sense of overall well being. These factors can lead to a decrease in the risk of sleep apnea episodes.
As was stated previously, if left untreated, sleep apnea will cause a wide range of serious health problems. Educating yourself thoroughly on your condition is important if you intend to treat your sleep apnea effectively. By studying the tips in this article and applying them to your life, you can ensure that you are doing everything you can to protect your health.
