Once you have been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea, your sleep specialist may put you on the CPAP therapy. To give you holistic results, your dietitian may suggest certain lifestyle and dietary changes which have been outlined in previous blogs.
Ref: 3 Steps to Diagnose Sleep Apnea 13 Steps to Improve Your Sleep Quality
If made, these changes can result in significant change in your respiratory system as well as your sleep quality.
Apart from these, there is one other thing that can be done to alleviate the symptoms of OSA. While exercises to alleviate sleep apnea is not a well-studied subject, there are researches that show that regular tongue & throat exercises can strengthen throat and facial muscles to reduce collapse during sleep and keep airways open during sleep. Click here to read research
The exercises in question, are quite straight forward & simple. Let’s look at some exercises that can be done to alleviate sleep apnea:
Swallowing
- Chewing Gum: Before going to bed, chew some gum. Chewing gum requires swallowing a lot, which strengthens the throat muscles. Chewing also exercises the facial muscles involved in opening and closing the jaw.
- The second exercise under this is to Place the tongue between the teeth and swallowing five times. This exercise should be done 5 times a day.
Tongue exercises
- Slide the tip of your tongue along your soft palate, from front to back. Do this repeatedly. This opens up the back of your mouth. If done repeatedly, the key muscles at the beginning of your throat will be strengthened, which will help in preventing the throat from collapsing.
- Press the whole length of the tongue flat and firm against the roof of the mouth. Hold for 3 minutes everyday.
Pencil exercise
Before sleep, keep a pencil between your teeth and clench it for 10 minutes every night.
Balloon exercise
If you’ve ever blown a balloon this will be an easy & enjoyable one. First take a deep breath through your nose. Then keep your lips on the opening of the balloon to form a firm seal around it. And blow air from your lungs into the balloon. This is a great breathing exercise.
Tongue Brush
Press the tongue firm and flat against the bottom of your mouth. Use the toothbrush to brush the sides of the tongue and the top. These brushing movements have to be repeated three times daily, 5 times each time. This exercise will strengthen the muscles of the tongue.
Gargle
Gargling is a great technique to exercise your throat. Take a mug enough water adequate to gargle for 5 minutes at a time – 2 times a day.
In the published study mentioned earlier, done by the American Journal for Respiratory and Critical Medicine, the group that 30 minutes of throat exercises consistently were found to snore less, saw reduced severity of OSA and enjoyed better sleep quality by upto 39% than the group that performed breathing exercises to alleviate OSA symptoms.
Other research studies have found that patients suffering from sleep apnea can pick up wind instruments like the Didgeridoo which involve great levels of breath and mouth muscle control which will further strengthen throat muscles. Doing all of these or a combination of these exercises can show you great results. However, more than the exercises themselves, diligence & consistency is what will make the exercises work. So don’t forget to be consistent and you will love the results that you see in your throat muscles.