Tongue and breathing exercises for sleep apnea
Common Questions and Answers about Tongue and breathing exercises for sleep apnea
tongue
In another form of the disorder, central apnea, both oral breathing and throat and abdominal breathing efforts are simultaneously interrupted. In a third type of apnea, mixed apnea, a brief period of central apnea is followed by a longer period of obstructive apnea.
Sleep apnea can be recognized by a number of symptoms. Loud and intermittent snoring is one warning signal.
Hi Doctor,
Thank you for your response. I had my consultation with the sleep apnea specialist and have a sleep study in the next 1 - 2 months. He thinks if I had apnea it is most likely mild and not severe. I don't have the typical sleep apnea characteristics with the exception that my jaw is very retracted and tongue restricted and my throat is very restricted. This he thinks would contribute to some apnea and that the sleep study should be able to determine some answers.
I suggest you follow-up with you sleep apnea team, and consider undergoing a formal or in-home sleep apnea test for more definitive diagnosis. The mandibular advancement device should help, as well as CPAP. The dental device pulls your lower jaw forward, which pulls your tongue forward. If you have a long wait, there are inexpensive low-tech boil and bite models that are sold over the internet for snoring, which does the same thing, but not as well as the formal device.
I would get with my doctor and ask for a sleep study. It could be a lot of things. The first thing that pops to mind when someone says they stop breathing at night is sleep apnea, but your description doesn't really sound like sleep apnea. A sleep study would be the first thing I would try. Good luck!
I would advise you to consult a sleep specialist who would assess with first a sleep questionnaire, and then he may ask for a polysomnogram, which is an overnight sleep study as this helps to detect the apneas. Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea is by CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) where air under gentle pressure is passed into the airways keeping it patent.
Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
Is there some reason why a partial oral breathing tube could not be used to treat sleep apnea? A full oral breathing tube goes way the heck down the trachea and has a balloon on the end to keep it in place. Since apnea closes off the area at the back of the mouth, one might think that a much shorter tube, just long enough to get past the the back of the tongue/soft palate might provide enough of an airway - without having to thread a tube so far down.
Did you mean that he stops breathing 40 times every hour? If he has obstructive sleep apnea, and stops breathing 40 times every hour, it's in the moderate to severe range. Untreated, it can aggravate or lead to a variety of medical conditions such as high blood pressure, depression, obesity, heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
Unfortunately, this condition is a structural problem and needs to be dealt with in a physical manner.
I am a 46 year old male and have sleep apnea. I use a CPAP with a high setting (15). I have a mask that covers nose only because the full face mask was a bit claustrophobic. I have noticed that I am waking in the middle of the night and morning with a mouth that is so dry I cannot swallow...teeth and tongue really dry. I am definitely still mouth breathing, even with the CPAP. I also noticed over the last week that my tongue is yellowish (related?).
Have you had a sleep study? Losing weight and being treated for sleep apnea is not an either/or proposition. If you lost the weight there is a chance you wouldn't need treatment (no guarantee, just a chance), and treatment is designed for those with it, not without it. If a doctor told you you had to lose weight BEFORE being treated, you need a different doctor.
If you have SA, being treated while whatever efforts to lose weight are taking place is important.
I read an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about treatments for snoring and sleep apnea and I watched the snoring clinic's testimonials on YouTube as well (just search for the clinic's name). Hopefully that will help with your decision.
The article is entitled, "Say Goodnight to Snoring with simple surgeries," . It goes in depth about some of the treatments now available in San Francisco medical clinic, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
I agree with you, this is not a "normal" sleep situation. Both your excessive daytime sleepiness and your arousal index over 30 suggest that they are missing something in the lab. Either their instruments are not set to measure it, or they are not looking for it. In my study, they called it "respiratory effort-related arousals" (RERAs) They could measure it, but when they were supposed to try to treat my symptoms, they focused on my 1 apnea, and ignored my 148 RERAs.
It does sound like sleep apnea to me and I would suggest you make an appointment to see a sleep doctor to have a sleep study done.
I believe you will end up having to use a CPAP machine so you can finally get a good nights sleep. I hope you have the study done so you can get to feeling back to normal.
So, you could have obstructive sleep apnea and this is diagnosed with a sleep study. As you wait for your evaluation, you could avoid taking alcohol and quit smoking and try to sleep on your side as this keeps the airways patent. If any nasal blocks try to keep them patent with OTC nasal decongestants. And aim for optimum weight with exercises or long walks. Good Luck.
Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
I would advise you to consult a sleep specialist who would assess with first a sleep questionnaire, and then he may ask for a polysomnogram, which is an overnight sleep study as this helps to detect the apneas. Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea is by CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) where air under gentle pressure is passed into the airways keeping it patent.
Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
this by itself indicates a narrow air passages. For snoring you could avoid taking alcohol and try to sleep on your side as this keeps the airways patent. If any nasal blocks try to keep them patent with OTC nasal decongestants. Aim for optimum weight with exercises or long walks. If symptoms persist consult your doctor to rule out Obstructive sleep apnea.
Hope this helped and do keep us posted.
If this always happens as you are going to sleep and/or wakes you up from sleep, my first thought would be sleep apnea. Before I was diagnosed and began using a CPAP, I had become very afraid to sleep, and avoided it till I collapsed in exhaustion. Much of what you describe is what I experienced. Since I got my CPAP working well for me I have not had one episode of the sense of choking or difficulty breathing.
Accidentally while checking for something else, I was Dx this week with sleep apnea. Now I wonder if my breathing patterns changed about the time of surgery, and the changes show up as SOB and apnea. This concerns me because it could be a neuro deficit after surgery.
What do you think? Have you heard of sleep apnea after OHS? What have you been told about why you have SOB for so long?
I'll hope for a reply--Thanks.
Recommended
