Snoring Golfers

Snoring and Sleep Apnea affecting your handicap?

It’s estimated that on average there are thousands of regular golfers suffer from snoring and obstructive sleep apnea

Golfers can reduce their handicap considerably if they get good sleep at night. Chronic snoring may impair your golf swing, researchers have found after players’ handicaps improved by three strokes following treatment.

Not only Golfers, but any such sports requiring high level of alertness, concentration and many other parameters of cognitive metrics, will be negatively affected by lack of sleep due to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Sleep apnea is a condition that causes you to briefly stop breathing while you sleep. If you snore heavily, you are more likely to have sleep apnea.When you’re awake, muscles in your nose, mouth and throat keep your airways open. This allows you to breathe freely.

Sometimes the airway at the back of your tongue (behind the uvula) collapses completely, which stops you from breathing. If your breathing stops, your brain senses this, and you wake up and start breathing again. This is called sleep apnea. Usually you will fall asleep again immediately and won’t remember these episodes.Nasal obstruction due to deviated nasal septum, nasal polyps, and sinusitis also can aggravate the sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea can leave you feeling exhausted in the day because you keep waking up at night. This makes it difficult to concentrate and make decisions, and increases the risk of having road traffic accidents. Sleep apnea may also cause high blood pressure; put strain on your cardiac system. It can lead to stroke, heart disease and heart failure.

OSA patients often snore loudly and keep their bed partners awake and frustrated. Social problems like marital discourse and divorce are not uncommon in OSA patients. These patients are poor performers in Sex life.

Who are more prone to have OSA?

If you’re overweight you’re more likely to snore. This is thought to be due to the excess fat around your neck. This makes your airways more likely to collapse.

Alcohol causes your muscles to relax more than usual during a normal night’s sleep so you are more likely to snore. It also irritates the nasal lining which can make breathing more difficult.

Sedatives, like alcohol, make your body’s muscles relax more than usual, causing you to snore. If you’re worried about how a sedative is affecting your sleep, talk to your GP about it. There may be a non-sedative alternative. Don’t stop taking prescribed medicines without talking to your doctor.

Smoking cigarettes causes inflammation and irritation to your nasal passage and throat, making snoring more likely. Even passive smoking can make snoring worse.

If you suffer from allergies you are likely to have sneezing, a blocked, itchy and runny nose.

Diagnosing OSA

Sleep Lab-Polysomnography (PSG)

These are sleep labs where you are monitored while you sleep, to help diagnose sleeping disorders. The test monitors things such as your heart rate, brain waves, and the amount of oxygen in your blood, whether or not you are snoring while you sleep, or if you’re breathing is interrupted. With this information he or she can find out if you have sleep apnea.

Home Sleep study

Now you can have a similar study at the comfort of your own home. Domiciliary home sleep study is getting very popular these days and cost fraction of sleep study in a sleep lab

Treatment

Life style changes to reduce weight avoid alcohol, stop smoking, Yoga etc.

CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) and NPAP (Nasal Positive Airway Pressure) – can be useful.But one has to wear it everyday which may be bit cumbersome.

Surgical treatment

Various surgical options are available, like Laser, Coblator, RF, Somnoplasty etc.It can be done under local or general anesthesia.

If CPAP therapy fails, surgical option has to be considered.