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Self-help treatment for sleep apnea
Minor sleep apnea is responsive to self-help remedies, or “behavioral treatments.” Some of the following self-help treatments for sleep apnea may work for you. I encourage everyone to get a sleep study done to rule out more significant sleep apnea and other related sleep disorders.
Lose weight. Overweight individuals who lose even 10% of their weight can reduce sleep apnea and improve sleep quality.
Stop using alcohol, tobacco, and sedatives, or anything that relaxes the muscles of the throat and encourages snoring.
Sleep on your side. Special pillows or remedies that encourage side-sleeping, such as the “tennis ball trick,” might help people who only experience sleep apnea when they sleep on their back. See Snoring Causes and Cures for more tips.
Elevate the head of your bed 4 -6 inches. This can alleviate snoring and make breathing easier.
Maintain regular sleep hours.
Use a nasal dilator, breathe right strips or saline nasal spray to help open nasal passages.
Taken from the following website: http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_apnea.htm
Minor sleep apnea is responsive to self-help remedies, or “behavioral treatments.” Some of the following self-help treatments for sleep apnea may work for you. I encourage everyone to get a sleep study done to rule out more significant sleep apnea and other related sleep disorders.
Lose weight. Overweight individuals who lose even 10% of their weight can reduce sleep apnea and improve sleep quality.
Stop using alcohol, tobacco, and sedatives, or anything that relaxes the muscles of the throat and encourages snoring.
Sleep on your side. Special pillows or remedies that encourage side-sleeping, such as the “tennis ball trick,” might help people who only experience sleep apnea when they sleep on their back. See Snoring Causes and Cures for more tips.
Elevate the head of your bed 4 -6 inches. This can alleviate snoring and make breathing easier.
Maintain regular sleep hours.
Use a nasal dilator, breathe right strips or saline nasal spray to help open nasal passages.
Taken from the following website: http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_apnea.htm
Views: 24
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Steven Y. Park, MD on
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Some great ideas, but the tennis ball almost never works, since it's too small. There are other shirts that have large foam wedges that may work somewhat better. The antisnoreshirt or zzoma are two options amongst many.
Another very important thing to do is to go to bed on a completely empty stomach (3-4 hours after your last meal). Having stomach juices when you go to bed will cause it to come up into your throat when you stop breathing, waking you up more often. Also, avoid alcohol of any kind at least 3-4 hours before bedtime. Alcohol relaxes your muscles and makes your snoring and apnea worse.
One thing about losing weight: It's an important recommendation but if you're not sleeping well, it's harder to lose weight due to the hormonal and metabolic conditions that exist because of your sleep-breathing problem. That's why it's important to see a sleep specialist about any persistent snoring problem, because there's a fairly high chance that if you snore, you may have obstructive sleep apnea.
Lastly, it's been shown that even young, thin, women and men that don't snore can have significant obstructive sleep apnea. So if you're tired all the time and don't know why (especially if you can't sleep on your back), consider that you may have a sleep-breathing problem.
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Permalink Reply by sleepycarol on
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Thank you for the additional comments.
In my own opinion it is best to do a sleep study and if it is indicated you do have sleep apnea to get the proper treatment. BUT I do understand those that are uninsured or underinsured it can be an obstacle.
Doing something proactive is better than doing nothing at all.
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