Leigh D Wilson
Hi, could this help improve the quality of your sleep?
If we look at our health and well-being using the metaphor of a three-legged stool, our sleep is one of the very important legs that holds the stool up.
The other two are diet by eating good food and having good exercise. So, we want good sleep, good food and good exercise to maximize our well-being. If any of these are missing the stool is not very stable and there’s a lack of balance and things can go wrong.
Now some time ago I had quite a sleep problem that went over many, many years, which I’ll talk about in another video. I finally resolved it, much to my relief as it was a serious problem, that was impairing my work and my quality of life.
As a result of that experience, I’ve taken a bit of interest in sleep over the years and read an article the other day that had a hint that might be helpful for some, so I thought I would share it.
The article was about the importance of breathing through our noses. As we breathe through our nose, the air becomes conditioned in various ways, which makes the quality of the air reaching our lungs to be of much higher quality, so we’re much more readily able to absorb the oxygen out of it. This improves the efficiency of our breathing and therefore our well-being and our health.
The article said that many people actually don’t breathe through their nose enough and this has a deleterious effect on their health.
Now one of the suggestions in the article was to consider how you breathe while you sleep, which was a factor in my sleep problems. The interesting suggestion was to put a Band-aid or an elastic adhesive across your lips before you go to sleep, which would help you learn whether you were breathing through your mouth or not. And if you were, you could then start to do something about it, you could investigate it.
If you are, this might mean that you have sleep apnea or some other problem. Alternatively, it could just help you develop the habit of keeping your mouth shut and increase the extent that you breathe through your nose during the night.
This is very simple trip trick. I’ve tried it out and fortunately discovered that I have no problems now, I’m certainly not breathing through my mouth.
The other trick that might be helpful if you find that you have a bit of trouble breathing through your nose is to get little things like this – I’m not sure what they’re called, they’re sort of surgical rubber nasal inserts. I bought these on Amazon, and you put them up your nose before going to sleep. They stay there quite simply all night long helping keep the nostrils open and increasing the ease with which you breathe through your nose during the night.
So, these are two unusual tips but maybe they’ll help somebody.
Remember that sleep is very, very important. If you do have sleep apnea or if you have impaired sleep, this can have long-lasting effects because a lot of important processes happen during the night while we’re sleeping. It can even increase your chances of dementia; it can have an effect on your heart and various other organs in the body so it’s not something to be disregarded if you’re having sleep problems.
If so, maybe even have a sleep study, although I found that a little bit limiting because you’re all wired up and you’re not able to sleep in a natural way at all. But certainly, talk to a GP, a doctor, about it if you are having sleep problems because it’s something that should not be ignored.
Anyway, I hope this is helpful. Have a great day.
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