If you feel you may be suffering from sleep apnea, you should make an appointment with your primary doctor for evaluation. He then may decide that you need to see a sleep specialist. Read on for information about sleep apnea, and decide whether you need to dig deeper into the causes of your snoring.
If you are over weight, going on a diet can reduce your sleep apnea, or in rare cases, eliminate it completely. Maintaining a healthy weight can help you breathe easier, so losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight when you have trouble breathing is an obvious step in treating your sleep apnea.
Make sure to provide relief for your allergies. Congestion can make it harder to breathe through your nose and force you to take in air through your mouth. Allergies can cause soft tissues to swell and make apnea much more severe. Research the medicines you use to treat your symptoms and be wary of adding side effects to the mix.
Exercise your throat. Make faces. Stick out your tongue. Rotate your jaw. It might feel a bit silly, but it can actually help people who suffer from sleep apnea. Doing these things exercises the muscles your body needs to moderate its breathing. Studies have shown that doing these exercises a few times a day can make a huge difference.
Exercise your neck and throat. Sleep apnea is caused by your throat becoming obstructed as you sleep. By strengthening the muscles in your neck, throat, and jaw, you can help your muscles withstand the pressure. Spend a few minutes every day performing exercises designed for the jaw and neck area.
If you aren’t sleeping with a partner each night who can let you know of any irregularities in your sleeping patterns, it can be hard to know if you have this condition. Therefore, record yourself sleeping at night by putting a video camcorder in your room. Make sure the video has sound as well, so that your doctor can hear your breathing.
If you are a smoker and suffer from sleep apnea, quit, or at the very least, cut back dramatically. Smoking is dangerous for those who suffer from sleep apnea because it causes swelling to the airways, not to mention all the tar it leaves behind in your lungs and airways.
You should consult with a medical professional about the more intensive sleep apnea treatments available to you if your symptoms don’t respond to the basic steps you take. Conventional treatments may not work for you, and other options do exist, including surgery that results in enlargement of the air passage.
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.
As you have seen from the above article, sleep apnea is treatable, but you need to take proactive steps into the treatment. The ideas above have given you a good foundation to find out helpful information, but, ultimately, a doctor’s visit should be first and foremost on your list of proactive steps.…