How to Sleep Better.

You can sleep much better. All you need is four inches of ½ inch tape. Why is this important?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 40 million persons are not getting the minimum six hours of good sleep every night. As a result, they report an epidemic of drowsiness that is causing serious injuries and health problems. At least 20% of all traffic accidents are due to the drowsiness that comes from lack of good sleep. In Australia, if you have had several accidents, you are required to have a sleep analysis.

Lack of sleep is linked to obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. If you are sleepy when trying to work, you eat candy and gain weight. Poor sleep. is a major cause of serious industrial injuries.

Currently there are several prescription drugs to wake you up if you don’t sleep well. Rather than pills for not sleeping, I prefer to have my patients sleep well. The solution for my patients is a roll of ½ inch tape.

How this works: many persons, as they age, lose fat under the skin. When this happens over the bridge of the nose, the tip of the nose will droop, come down. This affects an area called the nasal valve. If you lift the tip of the nose up, this opens that valve and increases the airway. Any condition that blocks good nasal breathing can reduce good sleep and result in snoring.

For example, when you have a cold, if your nose is blocked, you sleep poorly. When your nose is blocked during the allergy season, you lose sleep. For most conditions like sinusitis, post nasal drip, and allergy, the nasal problem is taken care of by pulse wave irrigation. Irrigation with the Hydro Pulse® works by removing bacteria and pollen and restoring nasal cilia function.

Even after the sinus problem is cleared by the Hydro Pulse®, if the nasal tip is down so that it blocks the nasal valve, the nose will be blocked in sleeping and cause poor sleep. In 90% of patients whose nasal tip droops, lifting the tip of the nose up, keeping it up with tape, solves that sleep problem. Even if there is a deviation of the nasal septum, this can work.

In the mirror see the bottom of your nose; the flat upper top. Place one end of the ½ inch tape that is about four inches long, over that lower flat top; avoid the actual air passages. When it feels secure, gently lift the tip so that the airway feels open. Then secure it over the bridge of the nose. Generally a 3 or 4 inch strip is all you need.

It is necessary to use medical grade tape and not duct tape. Applying tape repeatedly can irritate the skin, and medical grade tape is particularly non- allergenic. Any pharmacy has this.

If sleep apnea is a problem, try using the nasal irrigator of the Hydro Pulse® to clear the nose, and the throat irrigator of the same machine (comes with it) to massage the throat and make those muscles thinner and stronger. The massage pulsating irrigation of the throat irrigator attachment acts like any massage to thin swollen throat tissue that may block airway and result in snoring.

If you are drowsy all day from poor sleep, don’t neglect this. Don’t wait until you have an accident. Your cure may be as simple as a piece of tape. If not, there are treatments in this blog that can help too.