Are You Suffering from Sleep Disordered Breathing?
How is your sleep? Do you sleep through the night, or do you wake frequently? Has a partner or family member complained that you snore? Do you ever wake up with a headache, a dry mouth, or feeling achy and draggy? If so, you may be suffering from sleep disordered breathing (SDB).
What is Sleep Disordered Breathing?
When a person has SDB, it’s not easy for air to get into their lungs when they’re sleeping. Their airways are narrowed, or even totally blocked. As they struggle to breathe, they experience many microarousals, or super-short awakenings, each night. As a result, the body can’t do the things it’s supposed to do during sleep.
Why is this a Problem?
As many as 22 million Americans experience sleep disordered breathing each year, and most of them don’t even realize they have it. This translates to big health problems. Every day you go without good sleep causes irreversible damage to your body. Damage to the brain and body adds up and results in problems including:
- Cardiovascular disease
- Obesity
- Type II Diabetes
- Strokes
- Dementia
- Depression
- Chronic Pain
- Severe Car Accidents
How Can I Assess the Quality of My Sleep?
One of the easiest ways to assess sleep is snoring. Frequent, loud snoring is a common symptom of sleep disordered breathing. Often, snoring is caused by the relaxation of the muscles of the tongue and throat. The muscles relax and the airway is partially blocked causing snoring, as well as a partially blocked airway. In these instances, dental appliances such as the Snore-Cure® can effectively stop snoring by correcting the position of the lower jaw, allowing the airway to stay open during sleep.
In other cases, you may be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, characterized by episodes in which you stop breathing during sleep. After a few seconds, your brain recognizes it and wakes you up, often with a loud gasp or snort. You then fall back asleep and the cycle is repeated over and over again. This pattern of interrupted breathing can sometimes occur hundreds of time per night and, in many cases, the sleep apnea sufferer is not even aware it is happening. They generally wake up feeling unrested and groggy, despite thinking they slept all night.
A Biological Dentist Can Help
Dr. Surpiya K. Shetty takes her patients’ health seriously and is a leader in the field of dentistry for sleep apnea and snoring. She wants to make sure you are getting the deep and restorative sleep your body needs to stay healthy. Dr. Shetty offers sleep screenings and oral appliance therapy in her office. Her $150 Sleep Better consultation will help you develop a plan to get better sleep, improve your health, and live a longer, more active life.
If you’re not ready to become a patient yet, she still has lots to teach you about sleep, health, and how to improve both. Contact her today for information on her free monthly zoom seminars on sleep medicine.
Every night that you don’t sleep puts your life at risk. Don’t keep putting it off. Come in, get screened for SDB, and get your health and life back on track.
