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Snoring in Peace
Suresh Naig
Of late my wife keeps complaining that her sleep is insufficient. Not that she is getting older, or she has any pressing problems. As always, pinning me for all her inadequacies, when she accused me for her lack of sleep, I was perplexed. Don’t get me wrong. She attributed her lack of sleep, to my sound sleep.
No. She is neither envious. When she described minute details of my ‘snoring’, I couldn’t help but laugh. When she mimicked my snoring – she is popular in our house for mimicks and she has given several repeat performances on request – I admired not only her mimicking prowess, but also the rhythm of my snoring.
The facts pertaining to snoring, is as weird as snoring. I started collecting details on snoring, corroborating with my personal snoring pattern, and some of them are very interesting, a few very disturbing.
The first fact would make men, rallying behind “harassed hubbies”, very happy.
Because it is mostly men, who snore with advancing age. The “harassed hubbies” in wakeful hours, can take a sweet revenge, during sleep. It may be because their voice is silenced, when awake after marriage, their sub-conscious mind helps them to raise their voice during sleep.
Snoring intensifies with consumption of alcohol or sedatives. I also found out that, my snoring decibel increases, when I am physically drained. As per the medical literatures, during sleep all the muscles are relaxed, the relaxed muscles of the air-way, causing obstruction to the air movement in the wind –pipe, resulting in the resonant snoring.
Initially I did not consider it serious. One night, I was startled and woke up as I felt breathless. Further research of mine, lead me to believe that I survived what is known as “sleep apnea”, mostly associated with snoring men. Suddenly breathing stops for more than ten seconds, due to the blocking of the wind-pipe, by the relaxed muscles.
Instead of resorting to hi-tech investigations and medicine, which my physician warned is not fool-proof, I started looking for other avenues, of course not the off-course ‘Quacks’.
My regimen consisted of brisk walk, towards reducing my weight especially my bulging tummy, few Hatha Yogas, which I learned it long back, regular “Pranayama”, total abstinence from the magic elixir in exotic names & packings, and the white stick with fire at one end and the fool at the other. The results were dramatic. Within a month my wife was looking fresh in the mornings, having slept peacefully, since she never had the necessity to shift to another bedroom, in the night. I wished to end this, like the bed time stories we heard, usually ending with “they lived happily ever after”. But it was not to be.
A fortnight ago, I was urgently summoned by MD, who was in Colombo, for finalising a business deal. I was to catch the early morning flight of Srilankan Airlines, scheduled to depart from Bengaluru at 0140. I left my house at 10PM and the flight was delayed, which left only at 0340 hrs. When I reached the Hotel at Colombo it was 6AM, and my day started immediately, with the briefing by my MD.
The day was very busy with several rounds of meetings, we eventually concluded the deal at 5pm. It was so lucrative, my boss wanted to celebrate. I had few swigs of finest wine, on the house, a courtesy extended by the Casino and my boss. After few hours, my stomach and his pockets were full, we retired to bed at 11 PM to catch the morning flight at 0740hrs.
Since we had a lot to savor, I shared his luxury room. In the morning when I wanted to make some coffee, I was surprised to see that, no coffe sachets were available in the tray, which I saw the previous night. My MD was looking haggard, when asked, he replied with usual sarcasm- You lived up to your designation of GM-Operations, you were operating that Bull-Dozer of yours in full throttle, throughout the night. I never felt like waking you up, I spent the whole night drinking coffee after coffee. Both of us skipped the luxurious break-fast, the finest accompaniment in business class, for an hour’s sleep.
And I thought we accomplished it. On touch down at Bengaluru, my MD pronounced two vital points he learned in that trip. First one was not to share a room with me and the second, not to have me as his co-passenger.
Snoring in Peace
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Deepti Lamba
URL
June 17, 2008
06:31 AM
Suresh, my uncle suffers from sleep apnea. He uses a small oxygen tank for about thirty minutes before he turns in for the night. So far it has helped him sleep well at night and my aunt moved back into their bedroom;)
suresh naig
June 17, 2008
09:00 AM
Thanks Deepti, for your suggestion. Though I have over come my snoring by Pranayama, My boss had a bad night, because of my exertion. He deserved it rather.
smallsquirrel
June 17, 2008
10:01 AM
you should most definitely find someplace that will do a sleep study. you need to be monitored to find out what is happening in your sleep.
if you have apnea, you might require what is called a c-pap machine, which has a positive pressure air flow and keeps your airways open while you sleep. It fits over your nose, and while it takes a bit of getting used to, it will markedly help you out. I have 3 friends with severe cases and they are all doing great now that they have the c-pap machine.
you should not leave the apnea undiagnosed. it can have serious side effects, contributing to heart trouble and other things.
Surgical procedures for sleep apnea often do not work out, so maybe that is what your doctor was referring to.
Dee, I am glad that works for your uncle, but since for most people the airways is actually blocked, I am not sure how the oxygen before bed is actually working. are you sure it's apnea and not another condition.
Deepti Lamba
URL
June 17, 2008
10:27 AM
SS his condition was diagnosed as sleep apnea. He stopped roaring at night and doesn't stop breathing as he did in between his snores. I was under the impression that it was an oxygen machine but it could be the one you're talking about. I just assumed it was an oxygen machine since it looked it with mask and all but what I do know for certain is that he doesn't keep it on and sleep.
Dunno if thats okay or not either
smallsquirrel
June 17, 2008
11:17 AM
the c-pap is designed to be used while the person sleeps. it is a triangle shaped mask that goes over the nose and provides positive air pressure to keep the airways from collapsing, which is generally the cause of sleep apnea.
and hunh.. well if it works for him, that is what's important, right? :)
commonsense
June 17, 2008
11:47 AM
I had severe sleep apnea for over five years. sometimes the walls of my throat would collapse and i thougth I'd never breathe again. made such wierd, screechy sounds that i probably woke up all the neighbours. did a sleep study in a lab: electroded all over my body to monitor sleep patterns. i was waking up roughly about 800 times a night due to snoring. prescribed the c-pap machine. worked well; the problem was travelling, particularly to india. if i'm hooked up, with an air-tight mask over my nose/mouth, and there's a power-outage, I'm toast.
Heard about an alternative therapist! He taught me how to breathe differently and he forced me to lose about 10% of my weight. I'm not at all overweight, but apparently I'd put on about 10% rather suddenly and this was a major cause. The different method of breathing is called "Buteyko", devised by a Russian scientist. Link below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteyko_Method
It worked wonders. I have done two sleep tests in a lab now, and it's all gone! My c-pap machine lies in a corner...just in case!
A word of advice:
1. Try to avoid alcohol late at night.
2. Use two pillows to prop up your head a bit higher
3. Keep off that weight!
4. In general, the Buteyko method involves the technique involves getting used to the practice of SHALLOW breathing. The idea is to breathe in such a way that hardly anyone can notice you are breathing and your chest does not heave up and down.
5. It also involved a regimen of deliberately holding your breath for longer and longer periods of time, in a routine, before meals. I can hold my breath for over one and a half minute now. I do it for about five times before each meal.
6. Have light, frequent meals, rather than a huge one, especially at night.
If not taken care of, sleep apnea can lead to strokes, heart attacks etc. And even mild apnea can lead to a messed up day when you cannot think straight due to lack of sleep. major cause of people falling asleep on the wheel....
Good luck my friend!! Lose some more weight and you should be fine. Did you put on weight suddenly?
suresh naig
June 17, 2008
11:58 AM
Thanks ss for that informative comments. I was not diagnosed and frightened, by my Doc as to have sleep apnea. I stumbled upon it, while trying to find out what causes snoring.
Actually, what happened that night was weird. I had my folded hands on my stomach, just below the diaphragm. Probably my hands were so heavy, pressing my stomach and it resulted in temporary suffocation. The moment I removed my hands from my tummy, I was breathing naturally.
All I wanted was to throw some funny side of snoring, along with information.
Thank you, for giving more information, which I cherish.
commonsense
June 17, 2008
12:39 PM
Suresh,
Nevertheless, if it happens again, you might want to do a sleep test, even if only to ensure it's not apnea. As SS said, it is not something to be trifled with. Usually it begins with snoring and then proceeds to apnea stage...
All the best!
CS
suresh naig
June 17, 2008
12:59 PM
Thank you CS, for that elaborate information. I will follow ur advice, if it happens next time. Now that my snoring has stopped, I feel fine.
I had put on some weight, which I have lost now.
Thanks again
SN
John McGrath
URL
March 9, 2010
11:25 AM
You've got a bunch of anti snoring devices to choose from. For some people, a pillow works wonders, for others a mouthpiece. We are all different.
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