Sunday, January 24, 2010

Sleep apnea and sore throats

Like a lot of people who have sleep apnea I sleep with my mouth open. And like a lot of people with sleep apnea I occasionally have a sore throat in the morning.


I don’t think that I have always slept with it open because I used to grind my teeth (bruxism). I remember going to a doctor many years ago and he told me that sleeping with my teeth clenched was not only bad for teeth but was also stressful. Somehow this lead to me to sleep with my mouth open, which isn’t good for folks with sleep apnea.

If I am especially tired when I go to bed I know that my apnea will be particularly bad. My snoring (actually sleep apnea’s snore is more like a grunt or a gasp) will be extremely persistent and my throat will be very dry in the morning. Sometimes it will get to the point that I will drink a glass of water in the middle of the night, which isn’t a good idea because it usually makes me go to the bathroom.

The situation gets really exasperating when I already have a sore throat from an illness. On nights like that I rarely get any rest at all.

You would think that I would be able to just sleep with my mouth closed but it isn’t that easy. When I was first fitted for a cpap the tech made me try a mask just over my nose. It just didn’t work.

Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed

Thanks

2 comments:

  1. I solved sleep apnea without medical treatments - personal experience
    At first I didn't know what sleep apnea was nor that I have it.For several months I didn’t even realize I had sleep apnea. In this period I felt tired, I had no energy and I was sleepy all the time. I didn’t understand why I was tired and sleepy because I was spending more than 10 hours in bed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am glad that you found relief from it. thanks for the comment
    David

    ReplyDelete