Snoring & Sleep Disorders

Is Snoring Keeping You Awake At Night?

Snoring is to obstructive sleep apnea as thunder is to lightning. They may, but not always, appear together. One may be just an annoyance, but the other may be serious trouble.

With obstructive sleep apnea, muscles of the soft palate at the base of the tongue and the uvula (the small, conical, fleshy tissue hanging from the soft palate) relax and sag, obstructing the airway, making breathing labored and noisy. Collapse of the airway walls blocks breathing entirely. When breathing periodically stops, a listener hears the snoring broken by pauses. As pressure to breathe builds, muscles of the diaphragm work harder. Sleep is then temporarily interrupted, sometimes only for seconds. This, in turn, activates throat muscles and "un-corks" the airway. The effort is akin to slurping a drink through a straw that is stuck in a lump of ice cream. A listener hears deep gasping as breathing starts. With each gasp, the sleeper awakens, but so briefly and incompletely that he does not remember doing so in the morning. Someone with obstructive sleep apnea may stop breathing for ten seconds or longer - dozens, even hundreds of times each night.

Each time breathing stops, oxygen in the blood stream falls and the heart must work harder to circulate blood. Blood pressure rises and over time may stay elevated after breathing restarts. The heart sometimes beats irregularly and may even pause for several seconds. This may account for some deaths during sleep of people who went to bed in apparent good health.

The Silencer Dental Appliance Therapy

A dental appliance is a small plastic device, similar to an orthodontic retainer, or an athletic mouth guard. It is worn in the mouth during sleep to prevent the soft-throat tissues from collapsing and obstruction the airway. Dentists with training in dental appliance therapy can design, construct and fit these special appliances to meet their patient's individual situations and conditions.

In recent clinical studies, physicians and dentists have found that in the majority of patients, a well made dental appliance, eliminate snoring.

Dental appliances work by bringing the lower jaw forward, by holding the tongue forward, and by lifting the drooping soft palate.

The success of dental appliance therapy is an important development in sleep disturbance. However, such therapy should never be undertaken in the absence of a joint working relationship between a physician and a dentist.

The following is a sleep quiz to help you rate the quality of your sleep patterns.

I've been told that I snore. I've been told that I stop breathing while I sleep, although I don't remember. I feel tired and irritable in the morning even though I slept through the night. I am having trouble controlling my weight. I sweat excessively during the night I have noticed my heart pounding or beating irregularly during the night. I get morning headaches. I have trouble sleeping when I have a cold. I have jolted awake gasping for breath during the night. I am overweight. I seem to be losing my sex drive. Take the Sleep Apnea Self Quiz.