How to Learn Tips for Treating Sleep Apnea

Treating sleep apnea, which is one of the more serious sleeping disorders, afflicting more than twelve million people in the United States alone, is typically a multiple step process.

Of all the sleeping disorders, the reason that treating sleep apnea is so important is that it can be a matter of life or death. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form of the disease. During an obstructive sleep apnea episode, the soft tissue in the back of the patient’s throat folds in on itself and covers the airway for a brief period of time, literally obstructing the individual’s breathing, just as the name obstructive sleep apnea implies.

Sleeping disorders like sleep apnea are not only dangerous in that they can cause you to stop breathing, but they also affect your day to day lives, often causing you to feel excessively tired. Read on to learn specific tips for treating sleep apnea in non-surgical ways.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A desire to learn more about sleep apnea, one of the more dangerous sleeping disorders.

1. Your doctor may send you to a sleeping disorders clinic for a complete sleep evaluation. If the sleep specialists trained in diagnosing a wide variety of sleeping disorders determine that you do indeed have obstructive sleep apnea, they will inform you of the different ways of treating sleep apnea.

2. The sleep specialists will likely suggest some changes you can make in your sleep routine. For instance, if you sleep on your back, one of the more common positions for experiencing sleep apnea, they may advise you to change sleeping positions.

3. If you are overweight, the medical team will talk to you about losing weight, as excess weight can be a factor in some cases of obstructive sleep apnea.

4. For many people, treating sleep apnea with steroidal nasal sprays seems to help. However, you should be aware that any medication containing steroids can have side effects, especially if taken for a long period of time.

5. Some doctors recommend treating sleep apnea with a mouth guard. You can have a sleep apnea mouth guard designed by a dentist or orthodontist, or you can purchase a generic one over the counter. The mouth guard positions your mouth in a way that enables the air to move freely through your airway.

6. A CPAP machine may be used for treating sleep apnea in some individuals. It provides continuous positive airway pressure, and it is considered one of the best non-surgical methods for treating sleep apnea.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have tried all of the above ways of treating sleep apnea, but you are still struggling with this (and perhaps other sleeping disorders as well), you will want to talk to your medical team about all the benefits and risks of surgical treatment options for sleep apnea.