Many of us have a love-hate relationship with our sleep. For some it's just hard to fall asleep, for others it's hard to stay asleep. We get up several times in the night, go to the bathroom, check the phone, and think about tomorrow's to do list. For yet some others of us, we think we're getting a solid 8 hours of sleep, but we wake up unrefreshed, not that well rested, and can easily sleep for another hour or two if given the chance. Some of us have been told we snore by our bed partner, and we often deny, deny, deny. "Who me, I don't snore! I don't know what you're talking about!" But like it or not, our sleeping patterns, sounds, rhythms, and the level of sleep we reach during out bedtime affect us and those around us PROFOUNDLY.
Many people don't know that the tongue is the largest muscle in the head. The tongue we stick out in front of the mirror occasionally is only about 1/3 of the actual size of the muscle. Much of the tongue is hidden within your lower jaw. SO? So when we're laying down, in susceptible individuals the tongue can partially or fully obstruct the airway. If it's partial we're snoring and if it's complete, we stop breathing, then we gasp for air. The first one can be very disruptive for a bed partner, the second can be downright scary. They desperately nudge you awake either to shut the snoring down for a short while, or to kick start the breathing again. None of these options are good solutions. The effects of snoring
and sleep apnea on individuals and their bed partners is real. A proper diagnosis of the condition is now easier than ever with Home Sleep Tests becoming more reliable and more readily available than before. Sleep Physicians can be accessed by Tele-Medicine and Dentists who provide Oral Appliance Therapy are more available to you in your community.
What made got me curious about Sleep Apnea back in 2009 was a good patient of mine who was visiting my office for a regular 6-month Dental Check up and Cleaning appointment. I was updating her medical history as I usually do, and to my great surprise she had come off her usual medications. There were a number of them, I remember, one or two for a high blood pressure, one for diabetes, cholesterol, fibromyalgia, and some others. Seeing the concerned look on my face, she began to explain, that she had recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea. And once the condition was treated, her organs began to function more normally, whereas before they were starved of oxygen and more apt to fail in one way or another.
If you suffer from Snoring or Sleep Apnea that is currently uncontrolled. Do yourself the good favor if consulting a sleep physician or your local Sleep Dentist and begin the journey of discovery and healing.