Singing Cures Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

A clinical trial authored by Malcolm Hilton, consultant otolaryngologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust and Sub Dean of the University of Exeter Medical School, shows that certain singing exercises help reduce snoring in people with a history of simple snoring or obstructive sleep apnea
This research has been published in the International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.

Weak muscles in the soft palate and upper throat can be a cause of snoring and sleep apnea and singing exercises help to strengthen these throat muscles.

Mr Hilton decided to do this trial after being contacted by Alise Ojay, who is a choir director, singer and composer.
Alise got the idea after one of her pupils had said that, since starting to sing, his snoring had become greatly reduced.

The trial involved 60 patients who were chronic snorers, and 60 patients with mild to moderate sleep apnoea. Half of each group sang, using a singing exercise programme devised by Alise to strengthen the throat muscles, for three months and half had no intervention.

The trial concluded that the three-month programme of daily singing exercises reduced the frequency and severity of snoring, and improved overall quality of sleep, and that there was a statistically significant reduction in daytime sleepiness and frequency of snoring

You can hear an interview with Alise on the BBC website here.

How To Improve The Quality Of Your Sleep

There are many factors that influence the quality of sleep. The most obvious one is stress. When you are stressed, you may be able to sleep but the quality of that sleep is poor and you end up tossing and turning most of the night. Soothing music, meditation or a hypnosis track can be helpful, as can taking some exercise earlier in the day.

The second one is your health. If you are unwell or taking certain medications, your sleep may be affected especially if you are depressed. In this case you need to talk to your Doctor about it.

Too much light pollution at night is not conducive to sleep and interferes with melatonin production. Using an eye mask can help if you can't control this. Noise will also stop you from having a good night's sleep, and earplugs are an easy and cheap solution to this.

Snoring will affect not only your own sleep but that of your partners. There are many solutions to this these days, from sprays to plasters, so there is no excuse not to deal with that one.

A good mattress and decent pillows will increase your comfort. If you are uncomfortable, your body will tense up and you won't sleep well.

These are just a few things that can help you sleep better.

Sleep Apnea Improves With Facial and Tongue Exercises.

A Brazilian study which included 31 adults with moderate obstructive sleep apnea shows, that doing certain tongue and facial exercises for 30 minutes daily may ease the severity of obstructive sleep apnea.

Those exercises included brushing the tongue with a toothbrush, putting the tip of the tongue on the soft palate and sliding the tongue backward, pronouncing vowels quickly or continuously, and keeping the tongue in a certain position when eating as well as other exercises for half an hour a day.

After 3 months, the patients that did the tongue and facial exercise, had reduced the severity of their obstructive sleep apnea by 39%. Those patients also reported that they were snoring less, sleeping better, and were less sleepy during the daytime than they had been before learning the exercises.
The comparison group showed no such improvements.

Can Wearing A Ring Stop You Snoring?

Can Wearing A Ring Stop You Snoring?

I was at my local pharmacy today shopping, stocking up on vitamin C, when I saw a silver ring on sale, to stop snoring so that you can sleep better.

Being curious by nature, I had a look to see what it was and how it worked.

You have to wear it on the little finger and apparently it works on acupressure points.

From the blurb on their site:

"Stop snoring NOW with this one-off purchase simply worn on the little finger :

Silent Knight Ring is the most natural and effective solution you can use to put a stop to snoring. Currently undergoing NHS clinical trials. Silent Knight Ring is the only stop snoring ring in Europe with a FULL UK Patent (Patent Number: 2405345)
• It's worn unobtrusively on the little finger
• It's made in the UK from hallmarked solid sterling silver
• Research found that it cut out snoring completely in over 60 per cent of users, reducing it considerably in the remainder"

Now I have no idea whether this works or not, so if anyone has tried this, please do leave some feedback as to whether it does work or not.