One possible step you can take is putting a fan next to your bed. You might also want to think about taking off the comforter. If you're not sure what changes you should be making at home to manage your sleep apnea, remember that you can always talk to your sleep dentist.
Fans Can Dry The Air
If you have sleep apnea, allergies, or other respiratory issues keeping the air moist is important when it comes to getting a good night's sleep. You can eliminate this problem by running a cool mist humidifier filled with purified water at night.
Illustrating the opportunity to improve sleep, even in the presence of worsening obstructive sleep apnea, a lower ambient temperature improves sleep and alertness but increases obstructive sleep apnea.
Key takeaways: As long as your fan is clean, sleeping with a fan on generally doesn't cause serious health problems. But fans circulate air that may dry your nose and throat, and trigger other uncomfortable symptoms.
To help treat your sleep apnea, healthy lifestyle changes can be very effective. These include getting regular physical activity, maintaining healthy sleeping habits and a healthy weight, limiting alcohol and caffeine intake, and quitting smoking.
CPAP machines are the most common sleep apnea devices. They include a mask, filter, and tubing that connects to a device that blows compressed air into your lungs as you sleep. Diagnosis of OSA is usually followed by treatment with auto titration positive airway pressure (auto PAP).
Optimize Air Flow and Regulate Temperature
When your bedroom is too warm, it can be disruptive to your sleep. A fan can help improve airflow, which regulates body temperature and prevents excessive sweating. Almost any type of fan will work for this task.
The results of the study suggest that any air streams directed toward the nose offer relief from shortness of breath, and that in some cases, a room fan might even be as effective as an oxygen mask, researchers said.
Sometimes, though, it's the conditions of your bedroom that are causing your dry eyes. You might not realise it, but fans (whether they're the smaller, plug-in types or full-size ceiling fans) can dry out your eyes while you sleep, leaving your eyes feeling tired and itchy.
Positional therapy
For many people, sleep apnea worsens when sleeping on your back. Specially designed pillows, or devices that you wear while you sleep, can help keep you from lying on your back, reducing the need for a CPAP machine.
Some people use a humidifier in their bedroom to encourage their sinuses to drain. This makes it easier to breathe through your nose. Applying a product like Vicks VapoRub to your chest before bedtime also will help open your airway.
What Can You Do to Keep Your Sleep Apnea Under Control? If you think the temperature in your bedroom is making your sleep apnea worse, the obvious thing to do is adjust it before you go to bed. Experts say that the right temperature for sleep is in the range of 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sleeping on your back often worsens apnea, while sleeping on your side may lesson episodes of apnea. When you are lying on your back, your tongue and soft palate tend to fall back to the throat, which can increase breathing difficulties.
Several clinical studies have recommended fan therapy for dyspnea, and there is emerging evidence of its efficacy [12-14]. Therefore, fan therapy should be considered at the end of life and in critically ill patients with dyspnea in the ICU.
Key Takeaways. Benefits of Using a Fan: A fan helps regulate room temperature, boosts air circulation, and is more energy-efficient compared to air conditioning. It can alleviate night sweats and reduce cooling costs, making it a practical choice for many.
Ceiling Fans
They help improve comfort year-round by effectively circulating air throughout a room. Summer Use: Run ceiling fans counterclockwise to create a cooling breeze.
Background: The application of a handheld fan may reduce patients' shortness of breath and increase their activity tolerance by enabling cooling and air flow into the second and third branches of the trigeminal nerve.
As we've mentioned, running a fan all night long dries out the air in your room. Breathing in this dry air can irritate your throat and lungs, causing you to wake up coughing throughout the night.
Central sleep apnea is caused by problems with the way your brain controls your breathing while you sleep. Your age, family history, lifestyle habits, other medical conditions, and some features of your body (for example, your neck or tongue) can raise your risk for sleep apnea.
Though this is certainly more convenient, people should avoid sleeping on wet hair if possible, dermatologists agreed—it can raise your risk of hair damage, as well as open the door to possible scalp issues like infections or worsening skin conditions.
A CPAP machine delivers just enough air pressure to a mask to keep the upper airway passages open, preventing snoring and sleep apnea. For milder cases of sleep apnea, your health care provider may recommend only lifestyle changes, such as losing weight or quitting smoking.
Alternative options for OSA treatment include oral appliances, upper airway surgery, oropharyngeal exercises, and positional therapy [6–12]. Head-of-bed elevation (HOBE) has been shown to effectively reduce OSA severity in small studies [13, 14].