Stop My Snores

A sleeping partner is likely to be the first person to tell you that you are a snorer, the problem arises when you do not believe them or get offended.

Stopping snoring and upsetting your partner can be achieved.

Some potential snoring fixers to try out. Maybe you can find something that will work for you here before you consider more costly remedies.

Try Sleeping Supine

A lot of people snore simply because they sleep with their mouths open. The familiar sound of snoring is caused by the tissues in the nose and throat vibrating as the person breathes.

Sleeping on your stomach always makes you close your mouth, try it. The throat and nasal passages still vibrate, but the noise has nowhere to go, thus no snoring and peaceful sleep for all.

Lubricate The Nasal Passages

A more severe form of vibration and in turn snoring, is caused when the nasal passages are dry. This can be caused by your mouth dropping open during sleep or the effects of a winter cold.

Lubrication with a throat spray can help to stop the nose and throat from causing the snoring sound. This method is a great alternative for people who do not want to deal with uncomfortable or expensive stop snoring devices.

Use A Nasal Separator

A nasal separator is a small stop snoring device that fits into both the nostrils and lifts them outwards.

A wider nostril prevents better air movement thus reducing the flapping, snoring noise. Getting more air to flow through is one way to lessen the amount of vibration. This implement is similar in looks to a nose plug but operates in reverse.

Use Pillows

This method is really simple, place a pillow in between your legs and sleep on your side.

Although this may be uncomfortable at first, sleeping on your side helps you to keep your mouth closed. It may seem uncomfortable but it helps to trap the snoring sound and stops waking your partner.

Possibly the cheapest way to stop snoring. This particular tip enables you to avoid paying anything for relief as it utilizes something you already have around the house, a pillow.

These four tips on how to stop snoring are all simple and inexpensive. You should certainly try these before you look for more expensive remedies such as those available at you local pharmacy or physician.

Posted September 29, 2008 Comments(0)

If insomnia has been an ongoing problem for you, you might be willing to try just about anything simply to get a little sleep. However, it’s important that you do your research so you understand how various products work.

If a run of sleepless nights leads to drowsiness during the day, many people will decide to use a nonprescription treatment. Sleep aids might help at the start, but they don’t address the underlying reason for the condition.

A sleep aid should not be utilized as a fix for insomnia. It might provide some relief initially, but you still need to figure out the cause of your sleep issues. In the long run, it’s not very healthy to be dependent on a pill to get a good night’s sleep.

Quite a number of people get addicted to the medication and find they can’t sleep without it. Other people experience unpleasant side effects, or they end up with complications because of the way it interacts with their prescriptions.

Nonprescription sleep aids work against insomnia by employing an antihistamine, which is a common treatment for allergies. They not only make you sleepy, they help to ensure that you stay sleeping.However, there are those who feel drowsy the next day, which may cause disruption to normal sleep patterns. Other side effects might include memory loss, constipation, dizziness, dry mouth and blurred vision. If you become dependent on them, you will require increasingly larger doses to get the benefits.

Your physician may prescribe something more powerful, like a non-benzodiazephine. This helps you feel sleepy by stepping up the natural chemical process of your brain. If you need a sleep aid for long-term treatment of insomnia, it’s safer than taking nonprescription, short term cures, however they can also cause dependency.

Although it’s not that common anymore, if your insomnia is extreme, your doctor might give you a prescription for a tranquilizer. This slows down your nervous system and causes sleepiness. It’s a short-term answer that might leave you feeling foggy the next day.

Your physician might think that the best treatment for you is a prescription for anti-anxiety or antidepressant meds that will act as a sedative. These are a common alternative that don’t have the same risk of addiction as some other medications.

If you want to avoid the medical choices and select something more natural, you could look at an herbal remedy for your insomnia. There are herbs that have been shown to encourage a good night’s sleep, such as chamomile, which is often served up as tea.

Some other herbal remedies you could try are melatonin, SAMe and valerian, all of which are reported to be useful for treating insomnia. Be certain to use the proper dosage, because too much of even a good thing can cause undesirable results.

Posted September 29, 2008 Comments(0)

I touched briefly on the severity of my recently diagnosed sleep apnea. This post will go just a little deeper into what determines how bad your sleep apnea really is.

Remember, I discussed how many times I stopped breathing in an average hour of sleep, and my lowest oxygen saturation levels.

So what is considered stopping breathing during these sleep studies?

Well, the first thing is that the cessation of breathing must be for a minimum of 10 seconds to be considered an apnea episode. Some episodes can actually last 2 minutes or longer. As long as the sufferer continues sleeping, the apnea episode will continue. It is only stopped when the brain wakes the sufferer up and stimulates the muscles in the throat to open the airways again. This can happen hundreds of times a night, without even being aware that it is happening.

Also included, though, are hypopnea events, or times when the breathing becomes shallow or the breathing rate decreases. While there is still some breathing, the oxygen saturation levels will still decrease, because not enough air is being taken into the lungs.

Apnea and hypopnea episodes are almost always accompanied by a decrease in the oxygen saturation levels in the blood. This can be used in combination with the number of events to determine the severity. Thus the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is used. So, here is a brief definition using the AHI of the levels of severity of sleep apnea.

Mild apnea is usually 5 to 15 episodes of apnea or hypopnea every hour with 86% or more oxygen saturation in the blood.

Moderate apnea is typically 15 to 30 episodes of apnea or hypopnea every hour with 80% to 85% oxygen saturation.

Severe apnea is when more than 30 episodes of apnea or hypopnea every hour occurs with no more than 79% oxygen saturation.

The more severe the sleep apnea is, the more it will affect your waking lifestyle, including possibly falling asleep at inappropriate times. If you think you may suffer from sleep apnea, talk to your doctor, and see if a sleep study is indicated for your symptoms.

Until next time

Sleep well

Posted September 26, 2008 Comments(0)

About a week and a half ago, I had a sleep study done. Today, I returned to my neurologist and got the results.

Basically, during the study, I slept for a total of 4.7 hours. During that time, I averaged about 57 times an hour that I stopped breathing, and my lowest blood oxygen level was 82%. This puts me somewhere between moderate and severe apnea. (Moderate apnea is defined as 15 to 30 times an hour that you stop breathing, and an oxygen saturation level of between 80 and 85%; Severe apnea is greater than 30 episodes, but a saturation level of 79% or lower)

 So, what next?

My doctor has scheduled me for another sleep study, this time wearing the CPAP device. This study will determine both whether the CPAP will be an affective solution to my apnea, and if so, what is the optimum pressure setting. This study is almost a month from now, so in the meantime, I will be elevating my head more during sleep (which is sometimes affective in reducing the obstructions) and continuing my own research into sleep apnea.

I will update you when anything changes.

Until next time,

Sleep well

Posted September 24, 2008 Comments(1)

Are you a snorer, well there are many successful remedies and treatments that one can rely on, but one of the most accepted of all these days is the laser snoring treatment. If you are one of the millions of snoring victims around the world, you are going to want to find out more concerning the laser snoring treatment and regarding what it offers.

 What it is

 The laser snoring treatment utilizes a carbon dioxide laser. This laser is ideally suited to treat tissues of the throat and tonsillar area, and procedures that are used to require hospitalization can now be done right in the office, which makes it as quick and easy for patients as possible.

 The laser snoring treatment is a very safe treatment, one that proves to be almost completely effective at treating snoring conditions. The patient remains awake during the laser snoring treatment, the doctor starting by applying a local anesthetic to the throat. The laser will then be used to ablate the uvula, trim and reshape the excessive tissue, and although only a single treatment are typically required, a second treatment may be required after a month or two.

 Before you go ahead with this treatment, you are going to have to speak to your doctor. They will work together with you, assess your snoring condition, and determine whether or not you are going to be an eligible candidate for the procedure.

 Keep in mind that even if you are not allowed to go through with the surgery, there are many other wonderful treatments and products available that you can use and which will be effective at relieving your snoring.

 There is an array of different pills and powders, potions and products that will bring you relief of your snoring and which you may want to try out for yourself to eliminate the snoring condition that is causing you problems in your life.

Posted September 22, 2008 Comments(0)

Snore reduction pillows are no ordinary pillow; they have been specially designed to help reduce the effects of snoring which is already affecting so many people around the world. If you have a problem with snoring and are trying to obtain some quick and effective snore relief then you should try this type of pillow

How It Works

The snore reduction pillow has been orthopedically designed for its purpose and is designed with a reinforced head and neck roll causing the throat to open the airway passage, and relieve snoring as a result. The snore reduction pillows also features a wedge that elevates the torso even further, thereby relieving the pressure at the throat due to the change of the center of gravity. This is effective because by relieving the pressure at the throat that causes the obstruction, which results in snoring, snoring is actually prevented before it even begins.

While other sleeping aids and other products offer gradual results or a solution based on the continuation and consumption of the products, the snore reduction pillow is a product that will work the very first time you use it. There is not going to be any harm in you at least trying it out, so get the pillow and try it out for a night and see what you think.

Keep in mind that there are quite a few of these pillows to choose from, some that are going to be more expensive than others, so it really all depends on your personal preferences and on how much money you have available to spend.

Other Options

Other than the snore reduction pillows there are other options as well, things that you can do to relieve your snoring. The pillow will most likely be effective enough but if your condition is particularly serious and you need more, you may want to consider going through with snoring surgery.

This is a relatively new surgical procedure for snoring that is typically done right in the doctor’s office. Nasal surgery to remove obstructions in the nose or to correct a deviated septum may also be done. You are going to have to speak to your doctor so they can do a proper assessment, determine what the specific problem is and any known causes, and from this they will be able to determine which surgery will be best for you. They will also have to ensure that you are an eligible candidate for the procedure before allowing you to go through with it.

Posted September 22, 2008 Comments(0)