Exercises That Can Cure Sleep Apnea and Stop Your Snoring Problem

Snoring is not a joke. It can kill you. Snoring is a common symptom of obstructive sleep apnea, a serious medical disorder that occurs because the airway is obstructed during sleep and breathing completely stops for 10 seconds or more. If you snore, or your partner snores, do not get exasperated and move to a guest room. Go see a doctor. It is estimated that 18 million Americans suffer from undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea.

National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that 30% of Americans under 40 and 50% over 60 snore. In most cases, the problem is mild and gets fixed by sleeping on your side, or getting a decongestant. But, in some cases, the symptom is a blessing in disguise, because it forces you to seek medical help. The National Council on Sleep Disorders attributes 38,000 cardiovascular deaths per year to consequences of sleep apnea.

What is sleep apnea

Sleep apnea is a pause in breathing during sleep that happens more than five times in one hour. In 84 percent of cases, breathing is prevented by a physical block to airflow and it manifests itself by snoring. A person suffering from it does not know that he stopped breathing, just as he does not know that he snores.

What makes sleep apnea so serious

Pauses in breathing that are characteristic for apnea are followed by drops in blood oxygen and increases in blood carbon dioxide. This, in consequence, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even memory loss. The least serious, but no less life changing, are lack of deep sleep, tiredness, daylight headaches, and loss of intimacy because of snoring, which is a common companion of apnea.

Common causes of snoring and apnea

Obesity and increased body weight, prolonged smoking, age, genetics, use of drugs and alcohol all increase risk of apnea. People with diabetes have three times more chance of having apnea.

Remedies

The solutions vary as much as the causes of snoring and sleep apnea. Some are fairly unobtrusive, like special pillows. Others, like various oral appliances made by dentists, can work in some cases, by keeping your mouth shut, or changing the position of your lower jaw. The more serious cases require special devices that control breathing called continuous positive airway pressure devices or CPAP. If all else fails, surgery is suggested, although even surgery has only 40 percent success rate.

Exercises as solution for snoring and sleep apnea

There are two types of exercises suggested as a solution both for snoring and for sleep apnea. One is exercising for general health and weight loss, since obesity is one of the most common causes. An increase of fat tissue in and around throat tissue can cause air obstruction associated with this breathing disorder. Since it is difficult to exercise only some particular muscles, it is suggested that better general fitness, muscle tone and loss of weight might improve breathing and prevent snoring and apnea.

Other type of snoring exercises attempt to address muscles involved in breathing: jaw, mouth, neck, or face. Many of the exercises are common in yoga, but some new exercise programs went one step further and combined the work with all involved muscles to improve breathing control and prevent problems associated in their lack of proper function.

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