Putting This In Your Nose Will Help You Sleep More and Snore Less
In past blog posts, I’ve talked about why mouth breathing when you sleep isn’t good for you. It increases the incidence of snoring, it causes bad breath, it can trigger coughing and result in a dry mouth and sore throat. It supports teeth grinding, and it can worsen asthma symptoms and high blood pressure. Mouth breathing can also lead to a low oxygen concentration in your blood, reduce lung function, and lead to heart failure. Yikes!
If you think you breathe through your mouth when you sleep – or know you do because you’re congested (or your partner tells you) or have a deviated septum—and you want to make a positive change for your health, I have some good news. You just need to open up those nostrils. Opening your nostrils will get more air through your nasal passages, which will encourage you to breathe through your nose instead of through your mouth. You’ll improve your health, sleep better, and if you’re a mouth or tongue snorer, you’ll snore less, too!
How Your Nose Works
Okay, so you already know that the typical nose has two nostrils (we hope!). You might also know that it includes a septum. That’s the cartilage and bone that gives your nose its shape and structure that separates your nostrils.
When you breathe through your nose, the air enters your nostrils (also known as nasal valves), passes through your nasal passages, then continues past your nasopharynx (this is the top of your throat), which includes the epiglottis (that oblong flap of skin and cartilage at the back of your mouth), before moving on down the trachea.
It seems easy enough to get air from your nose to your lungs, but there are situations that can make nasal breathing difficult.
- A deviated septum. A deviated septum happens when the septum is displaced or off-center, making one nostril smaller than the other. This is extremely common.
- Nasal polyps. Nasal polyps are small non-cancerous growths inside your nose that create an obstruction.
- Congestion. Congestion from the common cold or allergies can partially or completely block one or both nostrils.
- Inflammation. Inflammation is caused by an infection in your respiratory tract such as a sinus infection or sinusitis.
- Collapsed nasal valves. Your nostrils naturally weaken and narrow as you age, and they can collapse due to a nose injury or surgery.
Benefits of Nose Breathing
Even though there are times when nose breathing is difficult, your body is actually designed for it. When you’re born, your respiratory system isn’t fully developed, so for the first few months of life, you can only breathe through your nose. And what of all those little hairs in your nose? The hairs, or cilia, as well as the mucus in your nose are designed to act as a filtration system, keeping billions of particles like dust and allergens from getting into your lungs.
Keeping dangerous particles and contaminants from entering your lungs is one benefit of nose breathing, but there are plenty of others.
- Improved body and mind performance. Nitric oxide is produced naturally and continuously by the cells in the lining of your arteries and veins, including in your nose. When you breathe through your nose, the rate of nitric acid production increases. Nitric acid helps you physically and mentally by expanding blood vessels and improving your body’s ability to absorb oxygen into the bloodstream, helping to lower blood pressure, increase brain function, and boost your immune system and energy levels.
- Inner harmony. Nose breathing regulates and balances how much oxygen you inhale and absorb and how much carbon dioxide you exhale. It results in a steadier, more relaxed rate of breathing, which allows your body to function effectively, particularly when you’re experiencing stress or anxiety. When you mouth breathe, you take larger breaths. Your body can’t absorb all that oxygen quickly enough, so you end up exhaling too much carbon dioxide. This can cause you to get lightheaded or even hyperventilate.
- Airway and lung protection. Your nasal passages are lined with mucous, which warms and humidifies the air you inhale and helps it easily pass through the trachea and into the lungs. Mouth breathing brings in dry, cold air that can irritate your respiratory system and lead to wheezing or coughing.
- Better sleep. All that warm, humid, filtered air, rich in nitric acid, that you breathe in through your nose at a relaxed rate while you sleep, helps you cycle through all the stages of sleep so you reap the benefits of that deep, restorative sleep. In this way, nose breathing fuels your mind and body with good, clean oxygen so you can recover from the current day and prepare for the next. You’ll sleep better and wake up feeling more refreshed.
- Less snoring. Tongue snoring and mouth snoring are both associated with mouth breathing while sleeping on your back. When on your back, your mouth falls into a relaxed, open position, which leads to mouth breathing. For mouth snorers, the air inhaled through the mouth can vibrate against the soft tissues in the back of the mouth and throat, which causes snoring. For tongue snorers, the tongue relaxes against the back of the throat partially obstructing the airway, which also causes snoring. Nose breathing helps eliminate both of these common causes of snoring.
How to Improve Nasal Breathing
As I said earlier, if you think you sleep with your mouth open – or know you do because you’re congested or have a deviated septum—and you want to make a positive change for your health, I have some good news. You can very quickly and comfortably open the airways in your nose through nasal dilation.
Nasal dilation is just that. It’s opening or widening your nasal valves (aka nostrils) so you get more air through your nasal passages. This is where we get to the part about putting something in your nose—but not just anything! I personally use Mute nasal dilators. These are very small devices, about the size of your thumbnail, that sit just inside your nose and hold it open while you sleep to increase airflow and improve breathing.
There are a couple of things I especially like about Mute. First is that the dilators come in three sizes, and they’re adjustable. So pretty much anyone, regardless of the shape or size of their nose, can find one that fits. Second, they’re FDA-approved, 100% natural, drug-free, and made with ultra-soft medical grade polymers that are BPA-free and Phthalate-free. And, third, they help you breathe through your nose (instead of snoring through your mouth if that’s a problem) so you can enjoy all those wonderful benefits of nasal breathing.
Think of it this way, you were breathing through your nose when you were a baby; so by helping you breathe through your nose, Mute will literally help you sleep like a baby.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD., DABSM
The Sleep Doctor
The post Putting This In Your Nose Will Help You Sleep More and Snore Less appeared first on The Sleep Doctor.
from Blog – The Sleep Doctor https://ift.tt/ERrDgLN
https://ift.tt/6pIXAy9
Post a Comment