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March brings us World Sleep Day!
When I discovered this before writing to you last March, it prompted me to take a deep dive into the ever-growing body of knowledge around sleep health. This year, I’d like to share a story about a client who struggled with one of the most important elements that contribute to good sleep health – the quality of your Breath.
While most of us are not “mouth breathers” during the day, many of us can unconsciously default to doing so at night. This behavior causes us to bypass the many benefits of nasal breathing, e.g., higher oxygen intake, less dehydration, and better nitric oxide delivery, which in turn improves everything from your immune system to your sexual health.
Some people can correct this by employing the use of “mouth tape” – a sliver of tape across the lips that keeps the mouth shut, causing us to revert to nasal breathing.
Some issues, however, require a more serious intervention than a little piece of mouth tape. Over 45% of Americans snore, and a high percentage of them snore chronically. It’s a serious situation that affects our ability to sleep through the night. This, in turn, leads to exhaustion, a weakened immune system, diminished brain function, and impaired emotional regulation. On top of that, these symptoms do not fall solely upon the snorer, as partners and, in the case of very loud snorers, the entire household can be negatively impacted!
According to the Sleep Foundation, 77% of partners (of snorers) say it affects their well-being – they wake up feeling tired, cranky, or lacking in energy. Needless to say, this can also have an undesirable effect on the quality of the relationship itself.
Snoring results from a variety of issues, including your general anatomy, your sleeping position, alcohol intake, and allergies. What happens, physically, is that the soft palate, which sits at the back part of the roof of your mouth, vibrates when you breathe. If you have a large, floppy soft palate, then you are likely to create very strong vibrations. This is a hidden part of our anatomy that we rarely think of until it disrupts our lives with ear-shattering snores.
Fortunately, there’s a solution for that!
Laser treatments directed at the soft palate can simultaneously shrink the excess tissue and improve its muscle tone.
Treating this peculiar little fleshy protrusion can lead to significant improvements in sleep quality. Take the case of the client who sought out treatment because his thundering nighttime reverberations disturbed the whole family.
After his first treatment, his wife noticed that his snoring volume dropped by nearly 40%! After two treatments, he discovered that his ability to sleep more deeply was nothing less than “life changing.” As the physical benefits continued to accrue (the “toning” effects keep improving, even after the actual procedure) this client and his wife developed a morning guessing game. “Did I snore last night?” The answer, much to everyone’s delight, was generally “no!”
After so many years of struggling to sleep through the night and subjecting his lovely family to those high decibel snores, they are all thrilled to finally be free of this chronic condition. I am also thrilled that our treatments here at Kintsu can really lead to such life-changing results.
Wishing you all a month of peaceful sleep!