Snoring and Sleep Quality

[vroom]

I know I snore. I'm sure it is much less now that I have lost tons of weight and am in fairly good condition, but I have a sneaky suspicion it robs me of my ability to recover adequately.

Anyone out there with some tips on how to improve sleep quality and combat snoring? Also, if you have gone through something like this, what did you notice by way of changes or improvements after improving sleep quality?

[Canis_Dirus]

My allergies have been interfering with my sleep lately, and finally I started to take some benadryl before bedtime. It immediately made a huge, noticieable difference.

There are a couple good sleep articles here, look for "The Big Sleep" I think it was called.

[lostinthought]

After having Sleep Apnea for a while, (before losing weight and getting in shape) I found a few tips...

Make sure the room is as dark as you can make it. Sounds stupid but it can really help.

Make sure the room is as quiet as you can make it.

Only use your bed to sleep in. Don't watch TV, read, or eat in it...this will get your body used to the idea of when you're in bed, it's time to sleep.

Make sure you're breathing! This is what Sleep Apnea is all about...if you have to try the breathing strips that hold your nose open, do it...very small price to pay for a night's rest. It is completely amazing to think how different and better I feel when all I needed was a good night's rest.

Hope this helps!

[nfisher]

I suffered from crappy sleep for years. Here's what I learned:

Breathe Right strips don't look like much, but they really do work to correct mild nasal obstruction. Definitely worth a try.

Sleep apnea is correlated with excess bodyfat, but the problem can be structural too. If you think that your snoring is bad enough to affect sleep quality, I strongly suggest going for a sleep study. Apnea is nothing to fool around with. This might not apply in your case, vroom, but for the brothers out there with bad apnea, a CPAP can be a life saver. You won't know if you need it until you get checked out.

I totally agree with lostinthought's suggestion to keep the room as dark as possible. A sleep mask can help too, but since your skin reacts to light (suntan anyone?), and light is a big factor in controlling circadian rhythms, opaque curtains are better.

"Quiet" is important, but for me, total silence isn't. That just makes every little squeak and knock sound like cannon fire. I like to have some kind of white noise, like an A/C, a fan on high, or an air purifier. Anything that can muffle sharper noises without being intrusive on its own.

The reading or watching TV in bed thing seems to depend on the individual. When my wife reads in bed, it seems to keep her awake. I read in bed when I need to go to sleep quick - two or three pages and I'm out.

Anyway, I totally feel your pain. Been there. Do what you need to to figure this stuff out. It's worth it.

Hope that helps.

*Neal

[rfish1966]

Not that you have sleep apnea but for me snoring was a symptom I had ignored for years. I was not over weight and competed in kickboxing. My girlfriend finally said I would stop breathing and I went to a sleep lab and sure enough it was apnea. I had my sinuses fixed which got rid of the snoring but not the apnea...anyways my sleep doc told me snoring alone can ruin your sleep wether or not you know it.
worth getting looked at IMHO.

Randy

[rfish1966]

Bodyfat is actually not a problem as much as you think, not to say that it does not make apnea worse, and is once in a while is the case. A majority are not overweight, it's a common for people to think that though. At the age of 25 and 165 pounds I had it pretty bad. I was young but a typical patient. After sleep apnea gets worse the weight packs on quickly and is hard to lose untill the apnea is resolved.

nfisher wrote:
I suffered from crappy sleep for years. Here's what I learned:

Breathe Right strips don't look like much, but they really do work to correct mild nasal obstruction. Definitely worth a try.

Sleep apnea is correlated with excess bodyfat, but the problem can be structural too. If you think that your snoring is bad enough to affect sleep quality, I strongly suggest going for a sleep study. Apnea is nothing to fool around with. This might not apply in your case, vroom, but for the brothers out there with bad apnea, a CPAP can be a life saver. You won't know if you need it until you get checked out.

I totally agree with lostinthought's suggestion to keep the room as dark as possible. A sleep mask can help too, but since your skin reacts to light (suntan anyone?), and light is a big factor in controlling circadian rhythms, opaque curtains are better.

"Quiet" is important, but for me, total silence isn't. That just makes every little squeak and knock sound like cannon fire. I like to have some kind of white noise, like an A/C, a fan on high, or an air purifier. Anything that can muffle sharper noises without being intrusive on its own.

The reading or watching TV in bed thing seems to depend on the individual. When my wife reads in bed, it seems to keep her awake. I read in bed when I need to go to sleep quick - two or three pages and I'm out.

Anyway, I totally feel your pain. Been there. Do what you need to to figure this stuff out. It's worth it.

Hope that helps.

*Neal

[rfish1966]

I second the sleep study recomendation.

[vroom]

Time for me to Google up Sleep Apnea... thanks for the tips so far guys.

[V_R]

For what its worth vroom, it HAS to have somethin do do with physical shape. A year and about 45 lbs of bodyfat ago, I snored so loud it woke the neighbors.

I don't make a sound anymore.

[Tank53]

rfish1966 wrote:
Not that you have sleep apnea but for me snoring was a symptom I had ignored for years. I was not over weight and competed in kickboxing. My girlfriend finally said I would stop breathing and I went to a sleep lab and sure enough it was apnea. I had my sinuses fixed which got rid of the snoring but not the apnea...anyways my sleep doc told me snoring alone can ruin your sleep wether or not you know it.
worth getting looked at IMHO.

Randy

What did you do to get your sinuses "fixed"? And how much did it run you? PM me if you wish.

My sinuses has always been bad and I can't breath out of one nostril or both 99% of the time. It switches back and forth between nostrils, so its not something permenant that I would be worried about. I do believe if I could breath through my nose better I would keep my mouth closed while sleeping thus snore less.

[BigRagoo]

I snore like a bear, yet I get very good rest. Some people wake themselves up from snoring throughout the night and suffer from lack of rest, so you may.

[DaMadMonk]

http://www.snorestop.com/index.html

"SnoreStop has a dual therapeutic action. It shrinks swollen soft tissues in the throat where 90% of non-apnea snoring symptoms occur, and it dries built-up mucous in the sinus passages. SnoreStop's mode of action is decongestive, anti-inflammatory, anti-histaminic and mucolytic. Most other formulas just use various oils blended into water for a lubricating action." (Taken from site)

Let me know if you try any of the products out.