Sleep Apnea Symptoms and Cures

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Sleep apnea (disrupted breathing during sleep) is linked to snoring, and is caused by poor tone in the upper throat muscles and a fat-laden tongue, which collapses during sleep, blocking the windpipe. The lack of oxygen alerts the brain, the disturbed sleeper breathes, goes back to sleep and the process repeats itself.

Symptoms

• Snoring
• Headache or fatigue on waking
• A bad taste in the mouth and foul breath on waking
• Daytime drowsiness

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Cures

Naturopathy

Measures include a whole-food diet and appropriate exercise to help shed excess fat. Special exercises might be designed to improve the tone of the mouth and throat muscles. Fresh air, or an ionizer to improve air quality, might be useful. One patent natural remedy comprises a throat spray containing a mixture of five oils - olive, sunflower, peppermint, almond and sesame, with supplementary vitamins B6, C and E.

Vitamins and Minerals

Avoid alcohol consumption last thing at night, and altogether if you need to lose weight. Avoid rich, heavy meals that either interfere with sleep or make you sleep more heavily. Eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to supply vitamin C and bioflavonoids; avocados, bananas, brewer's yeast, rice and salmon to supply vitamin B6 (pyridoxine); and wheat germ, whole meal flour, hazelnuts, walnuts and sunflower seeds and their oils for their vitamin E content.

Specific dietary supplements include B-complex vitamins, vitamin C with vitamin E, calcium, bioflavonoids and magnesium.

Herbal Medicine

Extracts of almond, sesame and olive have been used to reduce severe sleep apnea. Decongestant treatments can also help where allergy or infection is a problem.

Aromatherapy

Remedies are as for sinusitis and hay fever.

Homeopathy

The severity of sleep apnea tends to increase as the night (or hours asleep) progresses. Remedies tackling this aspect include Arnica, Arsenicum, Bryonia, Opium and Pulsatilla - take strength of 6c at half-hourly intervals for an hour and a half before retiring, for up to a fortnight. The consequences of a night's sleep continually disturbed by sleep apnea include a dull, thudding headache, drowsiness and mild depression. These remedies should be helpful: take 1 hour before bedtime for 10 consecutive nights, and repeat the dose if you are woken by a nightmare or if you wake and cannot fall asleep again: Aurum 30c for severe depression after dreams of hunger, dying or problems at work; and Gelsemium 6c for a person whose head feels full and swollen, when the face is purple and looks congested, and the facial expression is dull and heavy, when the limbs are weak and shaky, and the pupils seem to be slightly dilated.

Medical Treatment

Surgery to the palate is sometimes resorted to in the case of patients at a severe risk of heart attack or stroke. Medical advice generally is to lose excess weight (sleep apnea is relatively rare in people of normal or sub-normal weight), and perhaps to see an ear, nose and throat consultant with a view to identifying causes such as adenoids or chronic sinusitis.

Prevention

• Lose surplus weight (a fatty tongue is a major windpipe blocker).
• Avoid sleeping on your back.
• Use a specially designed oral vestibular shield - a shaped plastic device which promotes breathing through the nose by effectively blocking the mouth.

Caution

• Sleep apnea has been linked to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack.
• Seek medical help if the condition persists.