Your spouse pokes you in the side.
“Wake up! You’re snoring again.”
You can sense the growing frustration in your partner’s voice. You also know that you don’t feel like you’ve gotten any sleep either when you wake up each morning.
You’re tired during the day. You often wake up with a dry mouth, a headache, or both.
Your symptoms — constant snoring, daytime sleepiness, headaches — all suggest that you may be suffering from sleep apnea. This is a sleep disorder that can deprive you of healthy sleep. And those effects can stay with you all day.
Our team at McNulty and Dancausse General Dentistry wants you — and your spouse — to sleep well. We also have a sleep apnea treatment that may be just what you need.
Call us today at 704-766-8662 to find out how we could help you.
Effects of Poor Sleep
When you have sleep apnea, you aren’t able to get deep sleep. This is important because health experts believe those deep stages of sleep are essential to our recovery from daily activities.
Sleep deprivation is a result of a lack of deep sleep. It’s also been linked to problems like irritability and trouble concentrating. It also increases your risk of being in a car accident significantly.
When someone has sleep apnea, he or she stops breathing repeatedly. This can happen dozens of times every hour and hundreds of times each night.
In response to this, your body will wake you up. Usually, this is so brief that people don’t remember it, although sometimes you may wake up feeling like you are gasping for air.
Every time you wake up, you drift back to sleep, but you don’t stay asleep long enough to reach deep sleep.
For someone with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the soft tissues in and around throat relax when they fall asleep and block his or her airway. Not breathing also causes your body to release stress hormones.
This may be why people with untreated sleep apnea have a greater risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and heart attacks among other health issues.
Breathe Better to Sleep Better
To stay asleep, snore less, and get the deep sleep that you need, you must find a way to keep your airways open.
For many people, an oral appliance is a great option. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has approved this as a first-line treatment with mild or moderate OSA. It’s also considered an alternative treatment for people with severe OSA who cannot tolerate a CPAP machine.
We have helped design appliances like this for many of our patients in and around Charlotte, NC. They work by shifting your lower jaw forward slightly. This can keep your airway open so you can continue breathing.
As a result, you can remain asleep and enjoy the kind of restful sleep that leaves you feeling refreshed when you wake up. It can also reduce and in some instances eliminate your snoring, which your spouse will appreciate as well.
Stop Dreaming of Good Sleep & Start Dreaming Again
Dreams usually occur during REM sleep, which is one of the deepest stages of the sleep cycle. We want to help you start having sweet dreams again.
Call 704-766-8662 or contact us online to set up a consultation with one of our doctors at McNulty and Dancausse General Dentistry. Find out how we can help you sleep well once again.