DABBLER GIVEAWAY DETAILS AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE!

We’ve all had to endure someone else’s snoring at one point or another. If you’re lucky, this is a rare occurrence, but there are many out there who have partners that keep them awake at all hours of the night. Until now, there have been expensive and impractical methods of treatment, but a Vancouver man has come up with a simple solution to your or your partner’s snoring problems. If you find it impossible to have a good night’s sleep due to persistent snoring, and can’t afford the usual treatments, click on the video to learn more about this condition from Dr. Najib Ayas, followed by Sean Kerklaan’s personal story and how he developed the Anti-Snore Shirt.

When you sleep, all the muscles in your body relax, including those that are at the back of your throat. For some, the throat can become so relaxed that it makes the airway quite narrow. This means that you are trying to push air out through a very narrow tube and this sets off a lot of vibrations, especially on the soft tissues of the soft palette or the uvula (the ball that hangs at the back of your throat).

Snoring is not that big of an issue for you. It’s an issue for the people that you sleep with and can disrupt your relationship with your partner. In terms of health concerns, of disrupting your sleep, or in terms of causing high blood pressure, it’s probably not that big of a concern. The major issue though, is that if your airway narrows so much that you don’t get enough oxygen, it can block up and under those conditions, the oxygen can go down, the carbon dioxide levels can go up, and you can wake yourself up a lot at night. That’s what Dr. Ayas calls Obstructive Sleep Apnea, and that could theoretically be much more dangerous because that has been associated with poor quality sleep, motor vehicle accidents, as well as increased risk of cardiovascular disease such as hypertension, strokes and heart attacks.

About 50% of males above the age of 30 or 40 snore. Sometimes it’s positional or it only occurs when someone is on their back. Sometimes it will only be after the intake of alcohol or other sedatives, or only after sleep deprivation. Snoring itself is quite a prevalent condition. Sleep Apnea is not; about 5 – 10 % of males over the age of 40 have Sleep Apnea, with a higher rate for older individuals. Dr. Ayas would argue that most patients with snoring don’t have Sleep Apnea, but a lot of patients with Sleep Apnea will complain about snoring.

Males definitely snore more than females so there’s probably some gender related issues. When people get older, they also tend to snore more, although they tend not to be as loud. Weight gain also increases snoring; it’s very common for people to get rid of their snoring by simply losing some of the excess weight. Anything that relaxes the upper airway muscles will predispose you to snoring as well: Alcohol, sleeping pills, muscle relaxants (pain killers). Often it can be a nasal obstruction, so allergies can exacerbate the snoring.

Positional Therapy means that you try to get people to sleep on their side, as opposed to their back. There are some people with Sleep Apnea that occurs only when they are on their backs so if they lie on their sides, their soft tissues and tongue are less likely to go to the back of the throat. For individuals with severe Sleep Apnea, it often doesn’t matter what position they’re in. If you are concerned that you might have this, consult with your physician and get a referral to the UBC Sleep Clinic. What Dr. Ayas would do is have you sleep overnight at their lab. They’d put a bunch of wires on your head, and measure your breathing and heart rate. They would also put you in different positions to see where your Sleep Apnea is worst. If it isn’t as much on your side as on your back, one of the things that Dr. Ayas would consider is Positional Therapy. The cheapest thing to do is sew a tennis ball into the back of a t-shirt and wear that to sleep. Something more unusual is to wear a backpack filled with towels to keep you from assuming the supine position.

So the first thing you should do is make sure that the snoring isn’t a marker of something more serious, like Sleep Apnea. Symptoms of Sleep Apnea would include: Your partner saying you stop breathing at night; gasping and choking; waking up with very poor quality sleep; waking up many times at night for unclear reasons; feeling very sleepy during the daytime that is not explained by other issues. If you have Sleep Apnea, your treatment would likely be more aggressive than just a tennis ball t-shirt.

For individuals who snore, there are a few options:

A CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) Machine is a mask that fits over your nose that pushes air in through your nasal passages. That’s usually reserved for patients with more severe Sleep Apnea, but there are some individuals who might use it just for snoring (a minority).

A Mandibular Repositioning Devise is a mouthpiece that fits into the upper and lower jaw and what it does is pull the jaw forward. This helps to open up the airway and hopefully help the breathing. This can work well for people, especially if they’re on the thinner side, or if their airway isn’t as narrow.

A more drastic option is surgery to have the uvula removed. This is reasonably effective for people without Sleep Apnea but it’s not really that effective for people with it. It’s something to consider in selected cases, especially if there are some anatomical abnormalities, but that’s obviously something you’d need to speak to a surgeon about.

Another option is also to take care of all the other predisposing factors mentioned above. Simply improving the patency of the nose, losing weight, avoiding sedatives, or avoiding sleep deprivation will help a great deal.

The Anti-Snore Shirt is one other option. Individuals with a positional type of Sleep Apnea will find this shirt very useful. It takes the concept of Positional Therapy, but does it in a more patient-friendly manner. If you can’t afford the options above, don’t have the means to sew, or don’t want to wear a backpack to bed, this would probably be your best bet. Dr. Ayas has recommended it to patients, but please note that this is reserved for people with the positional form of Sleep Apnea and individuals who just snore. For more severe cases, you need to consult your physician.

Sean Kerklaan created the t-shirt out of necessity. He was diagnosed with mild to moderate Sleep Apnea five years ago and has tried pretty much all the remedies available out there. Although the CPAP is effective, he found it extremely difficult to get used to. The Mandibular Repositioning Device was actually quite effective, but it had a lot of unfavourable after-effects that he wasn’t willing to live with. Finally he tried the simplest solution available and slept with a tennis ball on his back. This was a less invasive solution, so he set out to make it more accessible to people with the same problem. After a year of prototypes, he came up with the Anti-Snore Shirt. To see how it works, check out the video.

For more information on the UBC Sleep clinic, visit www.vch.ca/sleep_disorders

For more information on the Anti-Snore Shirt, visit www.antisnoreshirt.com

DABBLER GIVEAWAY!

If you or your partner have a snoring problem and don’t suffer from a more serious form of Sleep Apnea, this is a chance to try out an affordable and simple solution. If you’d like to give the Anti-Snore Shirt a try, send me an email and tell me your story and why you need this shirt. The deadline for Submissions is Tuesday, July 31st.