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Your partner is sleeping but you are not. His or her snoring keeps you awake, night after night. So what do you do? Wear earplugs? Put a pillow over your head? Move to the spare room? There may be nights when you feel like shoving a sock in their mouth.
Lack of sleep can affect your mood, your health, your quality of life, even your weight. If your partner snores there is a good chance you are not the only one not getting enough sleep. Frequent loud snoring is a symptom of a greater issue – sleep apnea, a potentially serious health problem.
Sleep apnea is a common problem that affects the way you breathe while we sleep. The most common form, known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), occurs when the soft tissue in the back of your throat relaxes during sleep and blocks the airway. This interrupts breathing, and although the interruptions are usually brief, it can happen hundreds of time a night. It can jolt the sleeper out of natural sleep rhythms or wake them up multiple times. A person who suffers from sleep apnea will spend more time in light sleep and less time in the deep restorative sleep they need to be energetic, mentally sharp and productive the next day. Chronic sleep deprivation results in slow reflexes, poor concentration and an increased risk of accidents. It can also lead to serious health problems over time, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and weight gain.
If you have OSA you may be completely unaware of it because you probably won’t remember these awakenings. If you snore ask your bed partner to give you feedback on the sound of your breathing. Occasional light snoring does not necessarily mean you have sleep apnea, but if pauses occur while you snore, and if choking or gasping follow the pauses, these are major signs that you have OSA. If you sleep alone try recording yourself while you sleep.
The health consequences of sleep apnea are reason enough to seek treatment. Relationship problems can also arise from lost sleep when you are a snorer or sleep with someone who is. Whether you have sleep apnea or attempt to sleep with someone who does, I have good news. Now there is a laser treatment that can tighten the tissue inside the mouth to open the airways.
Nightlase® therapy is a non-invasive patient-friendly laser treatment that reduces the effects of sleep apnea and decreases the amplitude of snoring by means of a gentle, safe, laser-induced penetration of heat to the oral mucosa tissue. To understand how it works visualize what happens to hamburger when you put it on the barbecue. It shrinks. In the case of Nightlase, the heat is gentle enough to be used on the sensitive tissue inside the mouth, but strong enough to provide efficacious heating. It does not hurt.
A full course of NightLase consists of three separate treatment sessions over a six week period. The final results of the treatment have been shown to last up to a year, and the therapy can be repeated. NightLase takes only 15 minutes to deliver and it is a highly comfortable and satisfying solution that has been clinically proven to eliminate or reduce snoring. It requires no device to be worn during sleep and involves no chemical treatment.
The same non-invasive method of tightening can also be used to treat the mucosa membrane inside the vagina to tighten the tissue and reduce or eliminate the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence. To learn more about our IncontiLase® and IntimaLase® treatments visit our website.
They say that people who snore always fall asleep first. If you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea NightLase will help you stay asleep and wake energized in the morning. If you sleep with a snorer you can finally enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep, without the pillow and without the sock.
Learn more about NightLase!
