As you already know, sleep apnea symptoms have a major negative impact on your daily life. From lack of sleep to trouble concentrating, it hurts your quality of life. By treating the symptoms, one study found a quality of life improvement from 26% to 76%. There are multiple things you can do to start improving your symptoms.
Adjust Your Sleeping Position
While this isn’t the easiest thing to do, sleeping on your side may help improve your sleep apnea symptoms. When you sleep lying on your back, it can constrict the throat and/or cause your tongue to fall back into your airway. On your side, the airway is opened up more, and you’re less likely to snore, helping you stay asleep longer.
You can still sleep on your back, but keep your head elevated. This helps with breathing and snoring issues.
Exercise Helps With Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Exercise isn’t a cure, but getting regular aerobic exercise or doing yoga helps strengthen your airway muscles. As a result, this helps reduce sleep apnea-related breathing issues that jar you awake at night. Mix this with sleeping on your side, and you might just get a good night’s sleep.
Try to Lose Weight
Obesity is a risk factor for sleep apnea. If you’re diagnosed, your doctor might recommend trying to lose weight. This can include both exercise and diet. However, even if you don’t lose a large amount of weight, the exercise itself can help. Plus, removing alcohol and smoking from your lifestyle can help with weight loss and sleep apnea.
Use CPAP Therapy
A CPAP machine is a device that helps to push air into your airways as you sleep. It keeps your airways open and helps you sleep easier. Of course, this also means wearing a tight-fitting mask or nosepiece. This is often the go-to solution as it’s highly effective. The only problem is it does take an adjustment in your routine and some getting used to with both the machine running and the mask.
Use Oral Appliance Therapy
A common and more comfortable alternative to CPAP devices is oral appliance therapy. These are a form of mouthguard that keeps your jaw and tongue forward to prevent airway blockages. While you can get OTC oral appliances, your dentist can actually create a custom one to better fit your mouth. This makes it far more comfortable to wear and helps relieve sleep apnea symptoms.
Interested in an alternative to CPAP? Check out Sleep Better Tampa’s oral appliance therapy solutions.