What To Do After A Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

What To Do After A Sleep Apnea Diagnosis

If you or a loved one recently received a sleep apnea diagnosis, you might be wondering what to do next. Do you know what will work for you? Learning what you need to know is as simple as continuing to read this article for great advice. Get through sleep apnea by consulting with your practitioner about getting a CPAP machine. You should consider the size and volume of the device before you decide to get one. Some of these machines are really small and barely make any sounds at all. Your doctor can help you pick a manufacturer for a good quality machine.

Sleep Apnea

If you suffer from sleep apnea and you smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, quitting could improve your symptoms. Both of these bad habits make the airways relax too much, making sleep apnea worse. If you avoid these things, it may help your sleep apnea. Overweight people are prone to suffering from sleep apnea. So if you have sleep apnea, and you are overweight, then try to shed some of those extra pounds. These people should set themselves up with a weight-loss plan that involves exercise and calorie reduction. Carbohydrate restriction has been shown to help people lose weight in recent studies as well. Moderate your alcohol intake. When drinking alcoholic beverages, it will relax your muscles. Even though you may enjoy the relaxing effects, this can contribute to sleep apnea events. Your throat muscles relax too much from alcohol, which means trouble of your body to manage breathing. While you might still drink, limit yourself and avoid it at bedtime. Do you smoke and drink alcohol? Lose all your bad habits. Both of these substances have a negative effect on your ability to breathe while sleeping. Alcohol can relax airways while smoking can cause them to swell, both of which can cause you to have sleep apnea. If you find that you just can't give these bad habits up, do what you can to not do either of them within four hours of your bedtime. Try something other than sleeping pills. Just like alcohol, these medications relax your throat when you sleep. They also can cause other harmful issues to make your sleep apnea worse. Ask your physician about sleep aids that won't also affect your breathing. Consult with your doctor about getting a mouth piece. The natural configuration of your jaw and airway passages may be conducive to the conditions associated with sleep apnea. Specialty devices can alter your position during sleep and more properly align jaw elements, giving you a much higher quality rest. A diagnosis of sleep apnea is performed by analyzing your medical history as well as your family history, followed by a physical exam. Your doctor might also choose to study you while you sleep. After studying this information, your doctor may send you to a specialist if necessary.

4 Hours

Avoid sleeping pills when you suffer from sleep apnea. The pills may relax the throat muscles so much that your airways do not function properly. Having a bad sleep apnea case could make these pills a dangerous option. It may be tempting to use these pills to sleep better, but it's not worth the risk. Try your best to use your CPAP machine as much as possible if you get one. It can be hard for some people to sleep with the CPAP initially. Nonetheless, it will not be effective unless you wear it for a minimum of 4 hours nightly. Try two hours at first if you must. The next week you should increase that amount to 4 hours. In the end, you should never use it less than 4 hours per night on a permanent basis. Adding a chin strap to your CPAP routine can help to keep your mouth closed as you sleep. A chin strap is a strap on fabric that can hold your mouth closed. Your mouth must remain closed in order to get the best results from your CPAP therapy. Sleep apnea can benefit from a good diet that results in your losing weight. Changing from a poor diet to a healthy one can transform your sleep apnea symptoms. It's been proven that poor diets can contribute to the severity of sleep apnea. When you travel, be sure to bring your CPAP on the trip. If you have sleep apnea, you need to use your CPAP every night. Conveniently, your CPAP machine should have a bag included with it for easy travel. Use this to easily transport your CPAP with you whenever you are away from home. Try not to drink alcohol as much. Consuming alcohol causes your muscles to relax too much. That may be something people like when they drink, but it also can cause sleep apnea. Alcohol has an effect on throat muscles and it can hurt your body. Try your best to limit your drinking if you do decide to have alcohol, and try to not have any right before bed. If you suffer from sleep apnea, you should treat any sinus or allergy problems you may have. Having sleep apnea means you already struggle to breathe during the night. You don't need to deal with anything that will affect your breathing when you sleep. Eliminating your nasal problems maintains a clear airway, which will increase the chances that you will sleep better.

Sleep Apnea

A great way to reduce the possibility of having sleep apnea is to lose weight. Sometimes, losing weight is all it takes to get rid of sleep apnea. Even a loss of a few pounds has been beneficial in opening the airway. Sleep Apnea also affects children. Symptoms may include mouth breathing, hostility, irritability, bad grades, hyperactivity and inattentiveness. Sleep apnea symptoms can mimic those of ADHD, but only a doctor can give the proper diagnosis. Don't use multiple or oversize pillows. The use of multiple cushions, or very large pillows, can throw off your sleeping posture and inhibit your breathing. Your body is in an unnatural position and breathing becomes difficult. This is why one pillow is best to manage your symptoms. Sleep apnea can be extremely tricky to diagnose yourself, especially if you sleep alone without a loved one to tell you about minor sleep problems you experience. Try setting up a video camcorder to record yourself while you are sleeping at night. Make sure any video you make includes an audio stream, since certain noises are clues that you may suffer from sleep apnea. Try using devices that help with snoring. Snoring is caused by mostly-closed airways, and apnea is fully-closed airways. Therefore, it is only sensible that a stop snoring device might also help with sleep apnea. If you have mild sleep apnea, an anti-snoring device may be enough to help with your condition. In order to make a proper diagnosis, your doctor may have you maintain a sleep journal. This log is where you'll keep track of how much you sleep during the night, and other symptoms you may experience. You can ask your spouse or a family member to let you know you how often you snore at night. This will greatly help your doctor in diagnosing your condition. Although you should visit your doctor to become diagnosed, you can still figure out if you have sleep apnea on your own. Anyone can enjoy better health from quitting smoking and dropping some unwanted pounds, but anyone afflicted with sleep apnea can really benefit from these lifestyle changes. Other vices to avoid are caffeine, alcohol and large meals right before bedtime.

Sleep Apnea

Start playing wind instruments. This will be not only fun, but it will also help strengthen your throat muscles. Making these muscles stronger reduces sleep apnea symptoms. Never underestimate the power of knowledge. When you fully understand your options concerning sleep apnea, you will start to find the proper solution. There are a lot of things you can do about sleep apnea, use these tips to find out what you should do. You might try playing a wind instrument to reduce your symptoms. It can be soothing, and it has been found that playing wind instruments calms sleep apnea symptoms. Playing a musical instrument strengthens the airways and gives you greater control.