Changing Your Diet May Not Help Your Snoring

We've all heard about different foods and drinks affecting the way we sleep at night and the amount you snore or not. Unfortunately, if you are suffering from sleep apnea, simply changing the foods you eat and liquids you drink might not prevent you from snoring.

Snoring at night can seriously affect the way you and even your sleeping partner sleep at night. Depending on how severe your snoring is it may be a symptom of sleep apnea, a sleeping disorder that can impact many other aspects of your life. Sleep dentists like Dr. Ira Shapira in Gurnee, Illinois, help people diagnose their sleep apnea when there is something more serious involved.

For some people, snoring is simply a disturbance that could be caused by many different factors. Drinking alcohol, eating dairy products, or eating a large meal before going to sleep might make this type of snoring worse.

Millions of other people who snore are actually suffering from a much more dangerous condition called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). When someone has OSA, the passageways in their throat temporarily close and prevent oxygen from reaching the lungs. To correct this problem, the brain wakes you from sleep so the body can open the passageway.

With the body and brain constantly waking up throughout the night, the body can't get the deep, restful sleep it needs to perform correctly and it can suffer from a few different dangers of sleep apnea.

If you or your sleeping partner is suffering from snoring a night and changing diet habits haven't helped, sleep apnea might be causing the sleep problems. To find out if you or one of your loved ones is suffering from sleep apnea, please contact Dr. Ira Shapira in Gurnee, Illinois to schedule a professional sleep analysis.