apnea worse.) Husbands complain too. “Women can have sleep apnea, especially if they are post-menopausal and not taking hormones, are pregnant in their last trimester or have had a nose job,” says Joyce Walsleben, associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, author of A Woman’s Guide to Sleep (Three Rivers Press, 2001) and a Costco member. “But many women don’t know they snore. Either they sleep alone or their husbands don’t tell them.” Either way, once you realize there is a problem, it’s time to go see your primary-care physician. Tell him or her exactly what your symptoms are and how you are feeling. Ask to be referred to a sleep-disorder physician (if you can, choose one who is board certified by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine). A sleep study either in the lab or at home (in-home testing was recently approved by Medicare) can confirm the diagnosis of sleep apnea.

Treatment options

Nasal strips decrease nasal airway resistance by a small degree, which is why some athletes wear them. But if you wear them and are still snoring, that’s a sign you may have sleep apnea.

Once your diagnosis of sleep apnea is confirmed, there are a number of options for treatment.

For mild sleep apnea, a dental jaw advancement appliance can help, says Helene Emsellem, M.D, director of The Center for Sleep & Wake Disorders in Chevy Chase, Maryland, a spokesperson for the National Sleep Foundation and a Costco member. “It’s custom-made to the patient’s mouth and pulls the lower jaw forward to open the airway. This reduces the snoring and the apnea.”

Changing body position can help to some degree. “Some people have worse apnea and snoring when they are lying on their backs rather than on their side,” says Dr. Emsellem. “So you may be able to avoid the snoring problem if you [don’t] sleep on your back.” The classic approach is to sew a tennis ball into the back of a sleep shirt, which will wake you up every time you roll over.

In some cases surgery can be effective— for example, snoring can go away when children have their tonsils or adenoids taken out (yes, kids snore) or if adults have redundant tissue removed. “Everything gets saggy as we get older, including the tissue in your throat,” says Walsleben. “Fat that collects in the throat and polyps in your nose also block the airway, making it more difficult to breathe.” In general, though, surgery isn’t effective in treating sleep apnea and is discouraged.

The best choice for most people is what
is known as the CPAP, or Continuous
Positive Airway Pressure, machine. “It’s
definitely the best form of therapy,” says
Miller. “It blows air at a set pressure into your
airway to splint it open.” This is helpful
because when you sleep, a different area of
your brain takes control of the smooth mus-
cle tissue in your airway.

Chrystle Fiedler writes about health topics for many national publications.

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