Does Snoring Keep You And Your Partner Awake?
Do you get eight uninterrupted hours of sleep and feel rested in the early morning? Or do you keep your partner up because of snoring? If you suffer from Sleep Disturbed Breathing (SDB) disorders that can cause you to stop breathing intermittently throughout the night, disrupting your natural sleep cycles and causing a restless sleep, Dr. Martin K. La-Kumi can help. Sleep disorders can range from snoring to Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).
Major indications that a person suffers from sleep disturbed breathing include:
- Generalized muscle pain
- Irritability Mood swings
- Impaired judgment
- Decreased sex drive
- Sleepiness during the day, even when remaining inactive
- Headaches in the morning
- Difficulties with concentration and memory
In addition, people with the following characteristics have an increased risk for Sleep breathing disorders:
- Being overweight or obese
- Male gender
- Genetically prone to sleep apnea
- Being 65 years old or older
- Being Black, Hispanic, or a Pacific Islander
- Smoking
- Certain physical attributes: e.g. having a thick neck, deviated septum, receding chin, or enlarged tonsils or adenoids
What is obstructive sleep apnea?
With Obstructive Sleep Apnea, the soft palate muscles situated at the back of the tongue and the relax and drop, partially blocking the airways, turning breathing into a noisy snorting. The caving-in of the airway walls interferes with breathing. When breathing stops intermittently, a listener can hear the snoring being interrupted by pauses. See the video above.
When asleep, a listener can hear deep gasping as breathing re-starts. With each gasp, the sufferer briefly wakes up, but so incompletely that they do not recall doing so when they are awake. This is comparable to sucking a drink through a straw that is stuck because of a lump of ice cream.
In essence, someone suffering from obstructive sleep apnea can repeatedly stop breathing for up to ten seconds (or more), dozens, even hundreds of times per night, eventually resulting in daytime sleepiness.
What can the dental sleep medicine professional do to help?
Oral Appliance Therapy has been proven to successfullly manage snoring as well as mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea. A dental appliance is a plastic device, comparable to an athletic mouthguard or an orthodontic retainer. It should be worn in the mouth while asleep in order to prevent the soft throat tissues from caving in and clocking the airways. Dentists who are trained to provide dental appliance therapy may prescribe such appliances to tend to their patients unique requirements.