Waking up to go to the bathroom is a familiar routine for many people. They wake up because they have to urinate. Or maybe not. Not if researchers from New Mexico are right. Their study, published in the most recent online issue of  Sleep and Breathing isn’t the first to make this connection.
Nocturia (the need to urinate at night) has been linked to sleep apnea (brief periods of not breathing) before, identifying that about one-quarter of men in the United States have this problem, as do 10% of women.  This study, however, was looking to see if the could identify …read more

Sleep apnea is more than an inconvenience that makes us feel tired the next day – it can make us dangerously sleepy, affecting judgment and causing accidents because of our fatigue.
Before trying treatments that could be expensive (like a machine called a CPAP that helps you breathe at night), researchers have found that a simple tongue exercise may help reduce the incidence of mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute:
“Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes. They often occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour. …read more

Is that an onomatopoeia for snoring?
I’m having fantasies about having my own bedroom. It’s not that I’m unromantic, I just don’t put romance over and above sleep on my list of priorities anymore.
Here’s how this works, I strategically fall asleep hours before my husband even comes to bed. I snooze peacefully for a while. Then I’m awake. I lie there wondering why I’m awake.
No bad dreams, no kids crying, no anxiety or stress. Just awake. 
UGGGNNNUGGNN SHTWOOOOOWW
UGGGNNNUGGNN SHTWOOOOOWW
Oh, that. The snoring.
Nudge. Honey, you’re snoring again. Roll over please.
UGGGNNNUGGNN SHTWOOOOOWW
Nudge. Honey, roll over.
UGGGNNNUGGNN SHTWOOOOOWW
Poke. Honey, you’re still snoring.
UGGGNNNUGGNN SHTWOOOOOWW
I count myself lucky because my husband will …read more

Can Snoring Kill? – glared the headline of a recent science article.
Followed by a cheeky lead-in sentence which mocked the partner of the afflicted — hinting that he or she could be the assassin of the buzz-saw beside them.
Referred to as Obstructive sleep apnea, (or OSA) the condition is often defined as:

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. In central sleep apnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. Mixed …read more