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10.11.2018 Lifestyle

How To Stop Snoring Whiles Sleeping

How To Stop Snoring Whiles Sleeping
10.11.2018 LISTEN

Mike Dilkes is the patron saint of snorers: a clinical beacon guiding us poor souls suffering interrupted sleep, harangued by sharp-elbowed loved ones and the butt of many a joke.

But snoring is not funny. It ruins relationships, destroys careers and, in its most extreme form, it can kill; which is why Dilkes, consultant ENT surgeon at London’s Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, wants us to wake up and smell the coffee.

Snoring is an epidemic with real public health consequences. Left untreated it can develop into sleep apnoea, which causes blood oxygen levels to plummet and is associated with impotence, loss of concentration, poor memory, diabetes, hypertension and, most worrying of all, heart attacks in the middle of the night. A not-so-silent killer.

Around 40 percent of men over 30 snore, of which two percent have sleep apnoea. Almost two thirds of men over 65 snore, with ten percent suffering sleep apnoea. Not that it is exclusively a male problem, as a fifth of women snore too, and the figures are likely to be much higher as social stigma drives snorers underground.

Controversially, particularly for those of us who declare we can’t help it, Dilkes argues that it is a voluntary habit, much like drinking or smoking.

“Not a habit you may choose to have, but one you can choose to stop,” he clarifies.

To which end, he has come up with a revolutionary solution: a tongue and throat workout designed to tone up the structures in the neck that cause snoring.

While not a cure for those snorers who have physiological conditions such as nasal injuries or enlarged tonsils, the workout will help most to stop or to at least reduce decibel levels. Given the average snore is 60 to 100 decibels, comparable to a household vacuum cleaner, any reduction in volume will be music to tired ears.

The workout is split into three sets of three exercises, each designed to work a specific part of the mouth and neck – the tongue, the soft palate and the lower throat.

Tongue curls
These involve curling your tongue backwards in the mouth towards the soft palate then bringing it forward to touch the back of the upper teeth.

Open wide and say ahhhh...
Mouth stretches tighten the soft palate as you stretch your mouth open as wide as you can, while ‘ahhh’-ing for 20 seconds.

Squeal!
Exercising the lower throat, or oropharynx, involves poking out your tongue as far as it goes, taking a deep breath and making a high-pitched noise (similar to gargling with air) for 30 seconds.

The workout takes no more than five minutes and for those too lazy to try the full programme, there is a two-minute short-cut exercise.

Dilkes, a genial, laid-back surgeon who has lasered hundreds of soft palates, spent years developing the workout and studied the structures of the throats of cadavers to finely tune his ENT knowledge. The exercise programme is now included in his short book, which could well become the snorer’s bible.

I went to see him after another night in the spare room and an ultimatum from my wife, Stephanie. My snoring journey started suddenly and mysteriously about five years ago. I’m 47, fit, a healthy weight, a non-smoker and a moderate drinker. I have tried chin straps, sprays, a mouldable mouth-guard and even a strap-on sound monitor designed to deliver electric shocks when it registers a snort. All to little effect.

“Loss of muscle tone,” nods Dilkes. “As you’ve aged, you’ve reached that threshold. The workout should help you considerably. Snoring is caused because everything collapses at night when it relaxes. You can stop things collapsing by increasing their tone.”

Sarah Dankwah Jeremie
Sarah Dankwah Jeremie

News ContributorPage: SarahDankwahJeremie

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