Dealing with sleep apnea can be one of the most difficult sleep problems that you can face. Luckily, there exist a variety of methods you can employ in your fight to reclaim your sleep. Take a look at the information presented below that offers some helpful tips to give you a good night's sleep.
Do not drink alcohol often. Consuming alcohol causes your muscles to relax too much. While this might often be a desirable side effect of drinking, it can also cause sleep apnea. Alcohol will relax the throat muscles, which ends up making it harder for the body to control the airways. While it's not vital that alcohol be avoided 100%, do what you can to make sure you do not drink it before a nap or nighttime sleep.
It is possible to use a mouth guard to treat some of the symptoms of sleep apnea. Sometimes the way a person's face is shaped may be causing their air passage to be smaller. A corrective device will alter the jaw alignment and allow greater passage of air.
Look for devices that help to alleviate snoring. Snoring is precursor to sleep apnea. Snoring indicates the airway is blocked. Sleep apnea indicates the airway is fully blocked for a period of time. It is sensible to get a tool that assists with snoring, since it might help with sleep apnea too. Anti-snoring devices help you reduce apnea as you sleep.
If you are requiring a hospital visit, don't leave the CPAP machine behind. If the hospitalization was planned or for an emergency, you should still be sure that your CPAP and your mask are brought with you to be used while you're there. It is already set to your pressure, and you will have the exact mask you are used to using every night. Your whole hospitalization process will go much smoother because of this.
If you sleep alone, you might have a hard time determining if you suffer from sleep apnea. You might consider video recording yourself asleep. Your video needs to have audio as well because the doctors will want to hear any noises you make.
Try your best to use your CPAP machine as much as possible if you get one. It is hard for many patients to become accustomed to using the CPAP. Four hours of use daily is recommended with a CPAP machine to see the medical benefits. If you are having difficulty adjusting to it at first, try to make sure you at least use your CPAP four hours each time you sleep.
Drop some of your vices to fight against sleep apnea. As with many other health problems, alcohol and tobacco will worsen sleep apnea. Drinking potentially causes extreme breathing issues because it reduces the ability of your respiratory system to function. Smoking introduces known carcinogens into your lungs and damages them over time. Dropping both these habits entirely will help ease the symptoms of sleep apnea.
In these busy times, we need all the energy we can get to push through the day and meet all of our obligations. Do not allow sleep apnea to keep you up all night anymore and try these tips tonight.