I went through the whole process of seeing an ENT, using the machine for the at-home sleep study so insurance would give me a CPAP, then not being able to sleep with a CPAP, and over the course of a couple years I fixed my sleep apnea by fixing my posture and breathing. If you have forward head posture or are not used to breathing through your nose, you might also benefit from this. I think it’s kind of crazy that we do surgeries and take medicine that modifies your brain chemistry for what I believe in many cases is a structural issue.

If you’re curious to try this, read James Nestor’s book Breath, do yoga with breathing exercises, or see a physical therapist. It takes time to fix these structural issues, but you can literally change the shape of your nose, palate, and jaw from just practice.

Here’s a quick exercise you could try. Sit up, relax your body, breathe in through your nose, and feel the breath move up your nose, down to the base of your skull, down your neck, and then as far down your spine as you can. The air isn’t literally moving through these areas, but you should feel a current of sensations moving roughly along that path. As you breathe out, follow the current in the opposite direction. As you tune into this current, your neck and back will naturally straighten a bit, it should feel very natural and even pleasant. Keep your body relaxed and allow your neck and back to align with this current. If you keep doing this regularly it should help improve your posture and breathing. This is basically a pranayama / yoga breathing exercise. If it feels painful, definitely stop and try physical therapy or working with a hatha yoga instructor who can give you more guided instruction.

I used to snore so badly it sounded like, without much exaggeration, a dying elephant. I only did this exercise for a couple years and it slowly improved over that time, and now I sleep quietly.

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justinator 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> what I believe in many cases is a structural issue

Many cases it is not. I'm not trying to be a contrarian but I don't want to plant hope in some people who suffer from sleep apnea thinking it's something they can just do breathing exercises for.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/central-sleep...

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UberFly an hour ago | parent | next [-]

In MOST cases it actually is a structural issue. The brain anomaly that causes paused and intermittent breathing is much more rare.

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ajkjk 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

fwiw I really believe it is, my sleep problems come and go based on entirely physical variables--how flexible I feel, how much time I spent "shrimping", how tight my back and neck are.

Personally I would not be surprised at all if in 50-100 years we look back on this era as one where we massively overprescribed CPAP machines to treat an entirely-fixable condition in most people (alongside all the other medical interventions that will turn out to be bandaid fixes for actually fixable problems). I'm aware this is a bit of an outlandish take. But you can tell how many people's breathing and posture is bad just by existing in the world for ten minutes and looking at them. I think it's really an epidemic.

	▲	JoeyJoJoJr an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I don’t think it’s an outlandish take at all. You can possibly also put orthotics and spectacles in the list of interventions as solutions to problems largely induced by unnatural adaptations to an unnatural environment.

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chubot 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yup totally, how you breathe during the day is a habit that basically persists at night

So breathing better during the day can be trained, even at an old age, and it improves sleep

Not everyone breathes suboptimally of course, but I think more do than realize it. There’s a reason that breath work is in the traditions of many different cultures, and why it survived

But things like this aren’t necessarily profitable or worth a doctor’s time, so you have to do them yourself, or see therapists, etc

I had a good experience with a myofunctional therapist and posture therapist

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procone 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh you don't say? I'm genuinely curious to know what you reduced your AHI to with these exercises. Or are you just making things up?

Yeah we'll go with fabrications based solely on this sentence "But things like this aren’t necessarily profitable or worth a doctor’s time, so you have to do them yourself, or see therapists, etc"

	▲	krackers 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I thought one of the main issues is that during sleep you lose muscle tone and control, so no matter how much you do myofacial therapy while awake it doesn't really matter much in preventing your tongue from falling back when asleep.

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pmcg 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had a similar experience, with a slightly different approach (mouth tape and a nose dilator) but seemingly similar outcome. I like that you did it just through exercises with no mechanical intervention. Inspiring.

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an0malous 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Thank you! I saw you mentioned mewing in your comment, they teach you that in some pranayama exercises as well and I agree it’s a great addition. It feels unnatural at first but when you get used to it, it’s almost like bracing your palate with your tongue allows you to pull air in through your nose more smoothly and with more power.

I’ve found this is all really worth learning, even if you don’t have sleep apnea. I feel more clear headed and energized when I can breath through my nose now.

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pmcg 2 hours ago | parent [-]

That's fascinating, I just did some reading on this - I had not known that the basic technique of "mewing" is very similar if not identical to something that's been practiced in yoga for thousands of years. That in itself doesn't speak to its effectiveness necessarily but on the surface it's a different way to look at it than as just a modern fad.

Regardless, it doesn't cost anything to try, seems no danger in it and it seems logical that it could help.

	▲	krackers 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>basic technique of "mewing" is very similar if not identical to something that's been practiced in yoga for thousands of years Can you elaborate more on this? I also assume by "mewing" you mean putting the tip of your tongue on your hard palette right behind your upper incisor, and letting the rest of the tongue suction against the hard (and soft) palette. Surprisingly for something that seems to be so "popular" in "broscience" I find it hard to find any canonical definition or technique.

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jfengel 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nestor's book didn't feel right. I don't think he's a crank, or that he's entirely wrong, but the idea that we're breathing wrong feels really unlikely. You don't have to be taught to breathe.

I'm sure that many of the lessons in the book are applicable and there is much to learn. But a lot of it felt like woo, even though I know full well that the author is a well-respected journalist.

I'd really like to hear a sound review from someone who knows the domain better than me.

	▲	pmcg 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I haven't read his book, so I don't know how much of a kook or grifter I would judge this guy to be, and I'm always dubious about things, but I try to remember that even kooks and grifters sometimes (not always!) have genuinely useful things in what they're saying. They might not be the best person to say it, and their suggestions might not always be the best way to make use of the useful bits. But just because someone is trying to make money from spreading their message doesn't make it all BS. (I think I'm mostly agreeing with you.)

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procone 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What a ridiculous post. Please leave the Reddit pseudoscience at the door.

There are researchers actively working and studying people with sleep apnea. They're not suffering from "forward head posture" or "breathing wrong".

I have severe sleep apnea and no amount of "breathing exercises" are going to cause my soft palate to uncollapse itself while I'm trying to get REM sleep.

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2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

[deleted]

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tedk-42 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Do you run regularly?

Overweight by chance?

I've put on a bit of weight sunce having kids and my breathing at night is much worse than before.

	▲	procone an hour ago \| parent [-]
		You have no idea what you're talking about and it shows by what you choose to type. It's not exclusively caused by fitness or lack thereof. A cursory Google search would show you this. It's not "breathing at night", it's literally suffocating in your sleep. This place used to be full of intellectuals. It's a real shame.

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0xack 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Its been established head posture is a factor. It’s also intuitive - the posture of your head affects the angle of your airway. This is why some patients wear cervical braces to sleep.

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deepspace 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yes! It is a shame that this kind of nonsense gets upvoted. Pure snake oil.

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luxuryballs 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

To expand on this, the posture is really so important, this muscle the iliopsoas connects inner hip to low back on opposite sides, forward head sometimes also has anterior pelvic tilt, anyways your diaphragm is connected to this muscle and if it’s tight, or holding your pelvic in a tilt, it can make the diaphragm not be able to take full breaths. I’ve done some relaxation stretches you can search for this muscle, like laying down with one knee bent and leg up like a square and other leg straight out or slightly elevated, and “dead bug” yoga, and found my breathing suddenly improved on several occasions.