Treatment For Sleep Apnea

Fall Asleep

Whether or not you have been officiallly diagniosed with sleep apnea you may well already be suffering with it. Do you fall asleep in random places, wake up feeling  like you never slept and then feel drowsy and forgetful all day long? Are you ready to pay good money for just one night of deep sleep?

These are all sleep apnea symptoms so if any of these sound like you then there is a good chance you are suffering from Sleep Apnea  so what can you do about it?

The first thing to do is see a Dr, there are so many problems that can cause Sleep apnea like symptoms you really do need to get checked out by a specialist. No one (not me or any of your family or friends) can tell you for sure what is wrong, you really do need to get referred to a specialist for a sleep apnea test.

Once you have had the tests, assuming you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, they will give you a cpap machine which will give you oxygen while you sleep. This which will help you sleep and stop any brain damage that has been occurring.

Treatment For Sleep Apnea

CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) Machine
Realistically using a cpap machine is often the only treatment for sleep apnea that people want to use. Luckily enough it is not the only treatment for sleep apnea that is available. I will share another couple of options with you.

-Thorton Adjustable Positioner (TAP) mouthguard – This works by moving your lower jaw forward so that there is the maximum air intake while you sleep. While this will not give you the forced oxygen flow that a cpap machine gives, it makes no noise so it won’t disturb others in your home. Like the oxygen mask it can take some getting used to having this in your mouth but it is worth that discomfort if it saves you from brain damage.

Once  you have been using the TAP mouth guard for a while you may be wise to have another sleep test and see in your sleep pattern has improved. This is generally a cheaper option than using the cpap and it is a lot less distracting for the rest of your family. These reasons alone make it worth looking into.

-Lose Weight and Get Healthy – This is the treatment for sleep apnea that no one seems to talk about. While not every case of sleep apnea is caused by being overweight, a lot of people who have sleep apnea could do with losing a few pounds. If you smoke or are over weight then you know what to do. I am not suggesting you aim to run a marathon, but eating less snacks and walking up the stairs rather than taking the elevator could benefit you greatly.

You can combine weight loss with the use of the cpap machine or the TAP mouthguard, they do not need to be mutually exclusive treatments for anyone with sleep apnea. The real benefit of this treatment for sleep apnea is that your whole live will improve, you will be able to play with your children or grandchildren more, you will be more alert when you are at work and around your family.

The biggest benefit will be in life expectancy, if you have sleep apnea long term just some of the things it can cause  are

• Heart disease
• Cardiovascular disease
• Heart attacks
• Brain Damage
• High blood pressure

Out of all the treatment for sleep apnea options I would say that finding your ideal body weight and getting healthy is the hardest one for most people but it is also the one that has the greatest long term benefits.

As soon as you see the results of your sleep study you may be tempted to get a cpap machine and leave it at that, please take some time to thing about you life as a whole and you may well realize that getting healthy is the best treatment for sleep apnea that is available to you.