Sleep Better With These Sleep Apnea Tips

If you wake up after a full night's sleep not feeling refreshed or suffer morning headaches, consider sleep apnea. Find yourself receiving complaints about snoring from family members? If this sounds like you, you could have sleep apnea. This is a serious condition, so you must look for treatment immediately.

The two main pieces of information used to diagnose sleep apnea are personal medical histories and a physical work-up. After taking all this information, your family doctor may send you to see a sleep specialist. This doctor specializes in diagnosing and treating sleep disorders, and he will quite likely order a sleep study.

Two things that might hurt your sleep apnea is smoking and alcohol. Each of these habits has a negative impact on the airways (which do not cancel each other out!): Smoking leads to swollen, restricted breathing passages that lead to labored breathing; alcohol use relaxes the muscles of the airways and makes it difficult to maintain proper airway alignment. Cutting out these bad habits will usually have a very positive impact on sleep apnea; in many cases these lifestyle changes will allow an apnea sufferer to avoid more costly, intensive apnea treatments.

Strengthen the muscles of your throat and jaw using special exercises. You may very well be able to address your sleep apnea by strengthening weak muscles. Learning exercises is very worthwhile. These exercises may truly help you.

If you are prone to sleep apnea, you should try not to sleep on your back. Sleeping in this position blocks your airways, which will interfere with your sleep. Pillows may assist you in side sleeping.

You can reduce the risk factors for sleep apnea. Some risk factors, which include being male and family history, are innate and unchangeable. If you are an alcoholic, a smoker or are overweight, changing these factors may eliminate your sleep apnea.

You may need to have surgery to remove excessive throat tissue that can cause sleep apnea. A method called UPPP is used to remove the tissue and enlarge the airway. More than likely, the tonsils will be removed as well.

Sleep apnea is technically defined as a lack of oxygen while sleeping. Therefore, it makes sense to prevent sleeping at high elevations. High elevations decrease oxygen flow, which is bad for a sleep apnea sufferer. If one can avoid sleeping at high altitudes, one should.

Even though sleep apnea is can cause serious health problems, treatment is available. What you have learned from this article should help you get the relief you need. Whether or not they are effective for you, be sure to speak with your physician.