intimacy and closeness you
lost when you started wearing a CPAP?
- Oral appliances are discreet and comfortable.
- No hoses or air noises.
- Able to move to different sleeping positions easily.
camping with your buddies due to
your epic snoring?
and energized each morning?
Less than 10% have been diagnosed. Sleep
apnea increases your risk of heart attack, stroke,
erectile dysfunction, diabetes, acid reflux
and auto accidents.
Welcome to Sleep Solutions Northwest
Welcome to Sleep Solutions Northwest, where Dr. Stuart Rich offers dental solutions to snoring and sleep apnea that will help you and your bed partner sleep better and dramatically improve the quality of your life. In fact, they can save your life. Snoring may seem like something to joke about, and nothing more than a nuisance to your bed partner. It’s true that someone who shares a bed with a snorer can lose an hour of sleep every night. In some cases, they are even forced to sleep in another room, with a resulting loss of intimacy and closeness. However, it can lead to even more serious concerns like obesity, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, heart failure, depression, loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, diabetes and even sudden death. A recent study indicates that over 85% of heart attacks occurring between midnight and six AM are connected with sleep apnea.
There are treatment options for snoring and sleep apnea that are very effective. Sleeping in different rooms or using ear plugs are not suitable solutions, and they certainly don’t address the damage that sleep loss can have on your relationship or general outlook on life. We offer an alternative to the CPAP machine that has been effective for tens of thousands of people. Oral appliance therapy with a mandibular advancement device is a solution that will help you both sleep quietly and with better quality. To learn more, please contact Sleep Solutions Northwest today to schedule your consultation.
Understanding the Source of Snoring
Snoring is the sound you make when the tissues in the back of your throat and upper airway partially collapse over your breathing tube. This vibration is caused when air passes through a narrow air passage in a turbulent flow. Your muscles relax during sleep, including those that help hold open your airway. Your tongue and palate relax back in your throat, and partially or totally close your airway. For most people, sleeping on your back is the most likely position for snoring or sleep apnea to occur, since gravity pulls all that relaxed tissue directly back into the opening you use to breath. The difference between snoring and sleep apnea, simplified, is this. Snoring represents a partial blockage of the opening, while in obstructive sleep apnea, the opening is completely blocked. No air passes, even though your body is trying to breath.
There are several treatment alternatives for snoring and sleep apnea. At Sleep Solutions Northwest, we can help you find the best solution for you. In many cases, an oral appliance is effective in controlling simple snoring and mild to moderate sleep apnea. In other cases a CPAP or a combination of an oral appliance and CPAP work best. Weight loss can make a big difference, and there are even exercises that we can teach you that will increase the tone of the tissues in your throat, making them less likely to collapse during sleep. Because of the impact snoring and sleep apnea can have on your health, we work in conjunction with physicians who are Sleep Specialists, as well as Ear, Nose and Throat doctors, Cardiologists and Primary Care providers to insure that your total health condition is taken into account when deciding on the best course of treatment for you.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea–Snoring’s Quiet Cousin
Over 80% of snorers also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which your airway completely blocked for at least ten seconds, while you are trying to breathe. This isn’t “holding your breath”. Your body wants and needs the oxygen. Your breathing muscles are trying desperately to get air into your lungs, but it doesn’t work because the opening is completely blocked off. As this continues, the oxygen levels in your blood start to drop, and your brain activates your “fight or flight mode” and adrenaline floods your system. This puts tremendous stress on your heart as it tries to provide the oxygen your brain must have to survive. Your sleep is disrupted as your body works frantically to reopen your airway. Though you may never consciously “wake up”, if you are someone with untreated sleep apnea, you are partially waking up literally hundreds of times a night. This dramatically affects your sleep quality, preventing you from reaching the critical stages of deep sleep where your body and brain repair and regenerate themselves. Studies have shown that obstructive sleep apnea causes the risk of heart attack to be 23 times higher than normal. Car accidents are 300% more likely, and workplace accidents are dramatically increased. If you are a snorer, and don’t feel particularly tired in the morning, you should still be watchful of the following signs and symptoms of sleep apnea:
- Reports by a bed partner that your breathing stops or you gasp during sleep
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Waking without feeling rested
- Headaches upon waking
- Mood or personality changes, Depression
- Difficulty focusing
- Memory problems
- Lack of energy, motivation, or drive
- Hypertension
- Weight gain
- Diabetes
- Decreased libido
- Erectile Dysfunction
- Difficulty controlling diabetes or high blood pressure, even on medication
If you have one or more of these symptoms, we strongly recommend that you see a Sleep Physician or visit us here to be evaluated and tested for obstructive sleep apnea.
Snoring isn’t sexy, romantic or funny. It is your body’s early warning system, and it is telling you that you are at risk for, or may already have obstructive sleep apnea.
Don’t continue to burden your bed partner with your snoring or risk your life with obstructive sleep apnea. To increase your quality of life and get answers to your snoring and sleep apnea questions, visit Dr. Stuart Rich at Sleep Solutions Northwest in Auburn, Washington.
