The search for a way to stop snoring is big business. Pharmaceutical companies have spent who knows how much on sprays, head aids, pillows and alternative remedies and therapies to help sufferers stop snoring but do they work.

Well, my own experience is that some do and some dont. The most effective ones seem to be those that make you so uncomfortable at night that its impossible to sleep, let alone snore. If sleep deprivation is the tactic then some have cured me overnight!!

On a more serious note it is important not to be taken in by the newest spray or miracle potion that emerges. Lets face facts this is business to an awful lot of people, and as business goes, repeat customers bring in the most bucks.

You see its not just the snoring prevention industry that suffers this dilemma it is part of any profit making company that seeks to bring relief for any ailment or problem. In short they need you to keep a certain level of suffering and at the same time they need you to see some improvement from their product. Its a fine balancing act.

So how is this achieved? Well very simply put if you treat the symptom and not the cause then you will have dependent customers. For example if a snoring spray, strip or aid artificially changes something for the night then you will need to keep buying it. You will become a lifelong customer now thats great business!!

Dont be fooled the vast majority if not all of these companies want to make money and they are in business and it is big business. If they found a permanent cure then their market would eventually dry up. It is in their interest to sustain your problem with snoring and yet make you feel that you are getting some continuous benefit from their product.

Now all this begs the question What is the root problem and how can I deal with that? I guess thats the sixty four million dollar question. And although the question is expensive the answer is free!! Most snoring problems are rooted in an obstruction in the breathing passage. Get rid of the obstruction and you get rd of the problem. How do you get rid of the obstruction? There is a way with no surgery, no aids, no medication and no strips its exercise. Most snoring is caused by an obstruction that comes from over relaxed muscles in the throat and breathing apparatuses and you may be surprised to know that very few professional singers snore. Why? Because they continually exercise the appropriate muscles.

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Are you feeling sleepy all the time? Do you snore? Is your doctor having a difficult time treating your high blood pressure? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might have Sleep Apnea also called Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA.

Sleep Apnea is a condition involving pauses or decreases in breathing during sleep. It is usually due to airway collapse. This collapse occurs in the nose andor the throat anywhere from where air enters the nostrils to the back of the tongue. Imagine a straw collapsing when trying to suck on a thick milkshake. Frequently, this airway collapsibility problem is inherited and starts in childhood. In the daytime, it is not a problem because there is good muscle-tone in the airway and the brain monitors breathing. But at night, the throat muscles become relaxed and the brain is not as attentive to the airway. So on inhalation, the airway walls can either completely collapse or significantly narrow. This is a problem because 1 the body must struggle to breathe and 2 the brain has to wake up to reopen the airway.

These frequent awakenings lead to fragmentation of nighttime sleep. You may not remember them because they are so short. In fact, patients with sleep apnea can wake-up more than 30 times an hour and think that they slept uninterrupted through the night. Since sleep must be continuous and consolidated in order to be restorative, a number of cognitive problems can occur with sleep fragmentation daytime sleepiness, memory problems, concentration difficulties, emotional instability, irritability, slowed reaction time, and most importantly, an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents.

There are also cardiovascular consequences of this constant struggling to breathe. This puts a strain on the heart and blood vessels, leading to increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

Finally, there are social implications to Sleep Apnea. The snoring associated with sleep apnea can disrupt the sleep of others. In fact, one study showed that when a person treats hisher sleep apnea, the sleep partner gets the equivalent of one hour more sleep per night.

Sleep apnea is a progressive disease and often gets worse with age. Weight gain, alcohol, and other sedatingrelaxing substances exacerbate it.

Who Gets Sleep Apnea?

A common misconception is that only overweight men that snore loudly have sleep apnea, but the facts are

1 Sleep apnea can occur without snoring
2 Thin people can have sleep apnea
3 Women can have sleep apnea
4 Children can have sleep apnea

In other words, anyone can have it. Even skinny women. Even children.

I Think I Might Have Sleep Apnea, How Do I Find Out If I Have It?

Make an appointment with your primary care physician, or if your insurance allows it, go straight to a sleep specialist. If your physician thinks you might have sleep apnea, then heshe can refer you for a sleep study or comprehensive sleep evaluation.

How Is Sleep Apnea Treated?

There are four main categories of treatment for sleep apnea Continuous Positive Airway Pressure CPAP, Surgery, Oral Appliances, and Behavioral Modification.

The most effective way to treat sleep apnea is with CPAP. CPAP is a mask worn over the nose attached by a hose to an air compressor. The air compressor gently and quietly blows room-air into the nose, which stents the airway open, preventing airway collapse. This is the most effective way to treat sleep apnea, and all patients diagnosed with sleep apnea should at least try it before considering other options.

Surgery can be an effective way to treat sleep apnea. A number of different procedures can be performed. These range from nasal septum repair to jaw reconstruction. Talk to your doctor about whether surgery is the right option for you.

An oral appliance is a device made by a dentist or an orthodontist designed to pull your lower jaw forward. By pulling your lower jaw forward, the tongue is pulled away from the back of the throat. If your airway obstruction is occurring behind the tongue, then this can be an effective way to treat your sleep apnea. The treatment of sleep apnea with oral appliance should be a coordinated effort between the sleep physician, the dentistorthodontist, and the patient.

Behavioral modifications can help in the treatment of sleep apnea, but are usually the least effective. These include such techniques as weight loss, sleeping on your side, and avoiding alcohol before bedtime.

None of these treatment options is ideal, but they all can be useful in treating sleep apnea and resulting in more restful sleep. With risks like heart attack and stroke, you should do everything you can to get your sleep apnea under control. If you think you have sleep apnea, contact your doctor or go to a sleep center. It could be the best decision you ever made.

Just about anyone who knows they snore has probably tried to stop snoring before. Not only for themselves, but for other people who wake up and lose valuable rest because of the noise. The problem is, snoring is not voluntary, it is an involuntary actionso it is not as easy as just saying Im going to stop snoring tonight. If only it was. That being said, there are still different ways to treat snoring. This does not mean that everyone can stop snoring, but there are ways to treat many different of the causes that make many people snore.

The main medical cause of snoring at least the majority of the time is that the airway in your throat constricts shrinks and so your body is not getting enough air when you sleep. The snoring is your bodys way of trying to naturally compensate. There are all kinds of machines, gadgets, gimmicks, medicines, and combination of all of the above that have been touting their ability to prevent a person from snoring, with mixed results. There are some people who have touted various methods to stop snoring without the use of any other assistance. According to these people, the problem is that your tongue gets in the way of the airway, and training the tongue to stay out of the way will eliminate the snoring. There are websites and even entire books touting this method.

Another thought is that literally 99 of people who snore breathe through their mouths at night. This has led to a relatively new idea, a chin strap. The idea behind this is that if your mouth is held closed when you sleep, you will have to breathe through your nose and therefore will stop snoring. Some people say that after a certain amount of time this will train you to naturally breathe with your nose at night, others do not make any type of similar claim. The obvious problem to this is how uncomfortable it can be.

There are various more conventional methods of dealing with snoring, which include various nasal strips to open the breathing passages and nasal sprays. There is also a specialized pillow, designed to relax and support the neck muscles in such a way that it is also supposed to keep the airway open and therefore reduce snoring. Some studies have also found that smokers who quit sometimes top snoring as their lungs recover. There are many different options and directions, but there is probably an option out there for anyone who wants to look.