Most people take their ability to breathe for granted. However, like a lot of other things in life, we can do it well or we can do it poorly, in that our breathing can be disordered. Conditions such as chronic mouth breathing, asthma, stuffy noses, snoring, and sleep apnoea, involve disordered breathing. Snoring and sleep apnoea fall into a category of sleep disorders called sleep-breathing disorders because they involve sleep disordered breathing. Gaining control over snoring and sleep apnoea is about gaining control over your breathing and this can be achieved by using the Buteyko Method. Simply by learning to breathe correctly, it provides a natural way to experience quiet, refreshing, and restful sleep on an ongoing basis.

Snoring

Snoring has been defined as a rough rattling noise made on inspiration during sleep by vibration of the soft palate (the back of the roof of the mouth) and the uvula (the prominent structure dangling down at the back of the mouth). On inspiration, air on its way to the lungs travels by the tongue, the soft palate, the uvula, and the tonsils. When a person is awake, the muscles in the back of the throat tighten to hold these structures in place and prevent them from collapsing and vibrating in the airway. During sleep, the soft palate and uvula may vibrate causing the sounds of snoring.

Snoring is very common, and often relatively harmless. However, loud and habitual snoring can disrupt a person’s sleep and may be a sign of a much more serious disorder called obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA).

As mentioned earlier, snoring is the result of a vibration of the tissues of your airways as you sleep. This vibration occurs because you have some kind of obstruction in your respiratory tract. There are a lot of different reasons why people snore. It could be as a result of anything from the build up of fatty tissue around your throat to being the result of sleeping on your back, causing your tongue to drop backwards, partially blocking your airways. Also, our muscle tone is reduced during sleep and there may be insufficient muscle tone to prevent the airway tissue vibrating. During waking hours muscle tone keeps the airway in good shape and that’s why we don’t snore when we’re awake.

Additional factors that increase the odds of snoring include age (your throat narrows and muscle tone decreases as you get older), heredity, physical features (such as a cleft palate or enlarged adenoids), nasal and sinus conditions, being overweight, drinking alcohol, and smoking. Snoring can also result from a deviated septum, an unusually large uvula or tongue, and large tonsils. Being overweight increases the risk of snoring by adding girth to the neck. The thicker the neck, the more likely it is to press against the airways.

It’s estimated that approximately 40 per cent of men habitually snore and about 24 percent of women. Also, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of children snore. Most snorers tend to take a ‘hit and miss’ approach to finding a solution to their snoring, with the inevitable disappointing result. They frequently buy products that claim to have very high success rates in stopping snoring. Unfortunately, for many snorers, they become so despondent that they give up on their search for something to conquer their snoring.

Up to 40 percent of chronic snorers have significantly disturbed sleep that negatively affects their mood, ability to focus, and libido. As mentioned earlier, snoring is often a symptom of a more serious condition known as sleep apnoea. This sleeping disorder is characterized by continuous interruptions in breathing throughout the night. These breathing gaps can occur hundreds of times a night, robbing the individual of restorative sleep and increasing the risk of serious complications such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and high blood pressure. Studies have shown that snorers have a ten-fold increased risk of having a stroke.

The Buteyko Method of breathing training normalises both daytime and night-time breathing. A return to normal sleep patterns is observed in the vast majority of people who undertake a Buteyko course. Disturbed breathing and disturbed sleep go hand-in-hand. 

The Buteyko Method of breathing training addresses dysfunctional breathing habits through breathing training exercises and through education and awareness of posture, sleeping positions and lifestyle behaviours that influence breathing. The Buteyko Method teaches people to recognise their incorrect breathing patterns/habits, and teaches them how to improve their breathing which may assist with improving sleep patterns. 

If you would like to read an article I wrote (published in Irish Pharmacist) on behavioural approaches to treating insomnia, snoring, and obstructive sleep apnoea, please click here See page 21.

Buteyko Breathing Clinics (Dublin and County Wicklow)