Shallow sleep, really uncomfortable!
Even if you sleep for more than ten hours, it is not enough, and you still have back pain when you wake up, and you yawn continuously during the day.
Sisters with this problem should pay attention to the fact that the culprit of not being able to wake up may not be less sleep time, but snoring!
1. Snoring does not mean sleeping soundly
Snoring people seem to sleep soundly, but in fact they often wake up because of snoring.
This is because our soft palate and tongue muscles also need to be relaxed when we sleep, but once they are relaxed, the airways become very narrow.
And when the air flow passes through the narrow airway, it is like the wind whizzing through the narrow alley, creating a vibrating vortex, and this vibrating sound is a purr.
If the soft palate and tongue muscles are too relaxed and the airways are blocked, a brief pause in breathing occurs, leaving us to wake up frequently.
Even if you do not wake up, you will be a lack of oxygen because of narrow airways, resulting in poor sleep and poor sleep.
2. When snoring, there are several characteristics to be vigilant!
It's normal to snore occasionally because you've been drinking or are too tired during the day.
However, if the following symptoms often appear, it may be really sick, so people who snore, quickly check it out:
Be awakened by your own purring;
Feeling breathless while sleeping;
Dry mouth and headache after waking up;
Sleepiness during the day, short-tempered, difficulty concentrating;
……
The appearance of these conditions is likely to represent obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, which requires early visit to the hospital for respiratory sleep monitoring.
The disease is characterized by apnea, hypopnea, decreased oxygen saturation, and structural disturbances in sleep.
Not only will we be deprived of oxygen, affecting our sleep and quality of life, but also related to cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, metabolic diseases and even sudden death and other multi-system damage.
For example, about 50% of patients with obstructive sleep apnea have severe heart rhythm disturbances, and most patients have arrhythmias that occur during sleep. It also increases the risk of hypertension, coronary heart disease, ischemic heart disease, or stroke, and type 2 diabetes [1-5].
Therefore, snoring is not a small problem, and it must be paid attention to.
3. Let's snore the culprit [1,2,6]
The older women get, the more they like to snore
The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome increases in women after menopause, which may be because estrogen and progesterones affect the tone of the upper airway dilators and avoid respiratory congestion during sleep.
Therefore, women who have decreased estrogen and progesterone levels after menopause are more likely to snore.
Positional discomfort such as lying on the back
When lying on your back, the posterior region of the tongue collapses, that is, the tongue falls backwards, blocking part of the retroglossal airway, narrowing the airway and causing purring.
Breathe with your mouth open
It can also cause the posterior tongue area to collapse, causing purring.
corpulent
Obese people who exceed the standard weight of more than 20% and have a BMI (body mass index) of ≥25 have a thick neck and a lot of fat, so the probability of snoring is higher.
Alcohol, smoking
Alcohol can worsen upper airway blockages, while smoking is associated with increased levels of upper airway inflammation.
In addition, heredity, tongue hypertrophy, tonsillar hypertrophy, alcohol consumption, smoking, the use of sedative and hypnotic drugs such as muscle relaxants, or endocrine diseases such as hypothyroidism are also associated with the occurrence of purring.
After knowing the cause of purring, we can take measures to break each one and let purring be alleviated!
Whether it is a slight purr or a purr that is so severe that it affects your life, you can use these 5 super simple methods to alleviate it!
1. Side sleep: When sleeping on side, the tongue is poured to the side, and the airway will not be blocked.
2. Weight loss: By losing weight, let the neck slim down, reduce the fat accumulation in the pharynx, you can reduce purring.
3. Quit smoking and alcohol, stop sedative hypnotic drugs as directed by doctors, and other drugs that cause or aggravate sleep apnea syndrome.
4. Raise the head of the bed appropriately.
5. Avoid exertion during the day.
Sisters who have slight purring, after using these 5 methods, can alleviate purring to a large extent, thereby improving sleep quality and reducing the disturbance to roommates and partners.
And the sisters who snore to the point of seriously affecting their lives, not only insist on using these methods, but also go to the doctor!
Sisters with severe purring can see an otolaryngology head and neck surgery or a sleep specialist, and in general, the doctor will have these 3 treatment modalities [1,2]:
1. CPAP noninvasive ventilator treatment
It is the treatment of choice for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.
When you wear it while sleeping, the breathing machine directly opens the airway through a certain level of positive pressure, which can prevent the airway from collapsing, so that the airway can be unblocked, thus preventing the appearance of purring.
Immediate effect, no side effects and dependencies, and long-term efficacy has been proven.
It can not only reduce the occurrence of sleep apnea, but also improve daytime sleepiness, and in the long run, it can also reduce the incidence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications.
2. Oral appliance treatment
Suitable for patients with mild and moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. For example, patients with narrowing of the root of the tongue can maintain the patency of the airway by putting a device in the mouth.
The advantage is that it is non-traumatic and the price is low.
3. Surgical treatment
Surgery is used to remove obstruction of the airway, such as nasal surgery if the nasal cavity is too narrow. For simple oral stenosis, tonsillectomy or uvula-palatal-pharyngeal plasty may be done.
For obese people, weight loss and metabolic surgery may also be done.
What kind of surgery needs to be done, or listen to the doctor!
Snoring sisters and sisters who can't sleep because of the snoring noise, you can start by adjusting your sleeping position and lifestyle, and wish you a good night's sleep tonight!
Reviewer
Li Tiancheng | Deputy Chief Physician of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Peking University First Hospital
bibliography
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[6] Luo Huajie,Jin Xiaojie. Effects of age sex and obesity degree on sleep-breathing parameters in OSAHS patients[J].Journal of Shanghai Second Medical University,2005,25(9):960-962.
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