As a good rule of thumb, your body weight is inversely proportional to your sleep quality. And if you are suffering from obstructive sleep apnea, the weight of your neck can contribute to blocking your airway while you sleep. In fact, a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that a 10% decrease in weight predicted a 26% decrease in a patient’s apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). Meaning, that a reduction in your overall weight through exercise can lead to reduction of your sleep apnea symptoms.
But how do you get into the habit of it? By putting a rigorous exercise plan for yourself? Maybe. Maybe not.
Here are some ways in which exercise can affects Sleep:
It may actually be more useful to proceed one step at a time, and be consistent towards your exercise plan, rather than making a rigorous one and not sticking to it. So here are some tips to ensure you bring exercise into your sleep routine:
Now that you are aware of the correlation between exercise and sleep, and how does exercise affect your sleep, the next step is to understand how exactly it can help improve your sleep apnea.
The less you wear the mask, the harder it will be to get used to wearing it. So ensure that you use the device for several weeks or more to see if the mask and pressure settings you were prescribed still work for you. Exercise and sleep apnea are related, as established by several studies. One of the key ones is the 2010 Chest study which notes that, “Weight loss has been accompanied by improvement in characteristics related not only to obesity but to OSA as well, suggesting that weight loss might be a cornerstone of the treatment of both conditions.”
Certain kinds of exercises, particularly those that are for your mouth and facial muscles tend to increase the airflow through your windpipe, and may improve your sleep.
A recent study of the impact of myofunctional therapy (therapy involving movements that target the facial muscles and tongue to strengthen the oropharynx) on sleep apnea showed a 50% decrease in AHI in elder patients, and 62% decrease among younger patients.
So here’s a look at some of the easy and fun myofunctional exercising tips for sleep apnea improvement:
So as we can see, exercises can be both fun and useful, but they are still just one part of the equation of maintaining a healthy sleep lifestyle. The other major part being a healthy diet intake. However, these are essentially prevention tactics, and useful if consistently done over a period of time.
On the other hand, a more effective way to help you regain a good night’s sleep is by following CPAP therapy. You can take a 15-day CPAP trial to evaluate if this is an option for you, before committing to the therapy long term.