Many people look at the new year as an opportunity to improve their lives. Many people even go so far as to make formal resolutions to improve their lives. But whether you make resolutions or not, there’s one thing you can do that can dramatically improve your year: get sleep apnea treatment that you actually use.
Here’s how sleep apnea treatment can help you have a better year, including helping you to keep some of your resolutions.
Have More Energy
One of the big benefits of sleep apnea treatment is that it can improve your energy levels. One of the things that sleep apnea can do is sap all your energy. It makes sense: you’re not sleeping well at night. In fact, you’re waking up possibly hundreds of times a night, which can sap your energy during the day.
Fatigue and daytime sleepiness are some of the most common signs of sleep apnea, and they can vanish when you get your sleep apnea treated.
Have More Time
Many people with sleep apnea find themselves spending lots of time trying to catch up on sleep. In addition to the fact that this isn’t really possible, it can eat up your free time, especially the weekends when you’re supposed to be spending times with friends and family or doing work around the house.
But if you can just improve the efficiency of your sleep, you can spend less time trying to get the rest you need. Sleep apnea treatment can make your sleep more efficient, so you can get more rest in less time. And that gives you more time for the other things you want to do.
Lose Weight
Losing weight is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Sleep apnea treatment can definitely help here.
People often develop sleep apnea as a side effect of weight gain, but there’s also evidence that sleep apnea can lead to weight gain. First, not getting good sleep can make you gain weight. Not only are you likely to consume more calories each day with caffeine that you consume to stay awake, you are more likely to succumb to temptation when snacks are around. Poor sleep weakens the discipline and increases our tendency to follow impulses.
But the biggest problem is that sleep apnea disrupts your body’s metabolism. It makes your body more likely to turn energy into fat rather than burn it up.
Get More Fit
After losing weight, many people resolve to get more exercise and get more fit in the new year. Sleep apnea can help here, too. When your body’s metabolism gets back on track, it can help you have more energy when you exercise. That way you don’t get worn out too quickly when you start to exercise.
Sleep apnea can also decrease your body’s ability to take in oxygen. People with sleep apnea have lower oxygen intake than people without sleep apnea. Put these two parts together and you’ll have more satisfying and higher-impact workouts after you get sleep apnea treatment. That can help you achieve better results with exercise, which can help you stick with it longer.
Quit Smoking
There are so many reasons to quit smoking that it’s surprising anyone still smokes. But the truth is that it’s hard to quit smoking, even with all the major innovations in quit smoking aids and medications.
But treating your sleep apnea can help you finally quit. Not only does sleep apnea improve your will and make you less susceptible to temptation, you’ll have more energy and won’t need the little pick-me-up that you get from a cigarette.
As a side benefit, quitting smoking can also improve your sleep apnea. Smoking irritates your airway, causing swelling that makes it harder for you to breathe at night. If you quit smoking, the swelling will go down and your breathing will improve.
Get an Education
Another popular resolution is people trying to get more education. This can be a formal goal like getting a degree, or informal education just from reading more books or studying a new language.
Whatever your education goal is this year, it will really help you to achieve it if you have the energy to stay up reading or studying rather than dozing off in a book every time you try to read.
Save Money
Who doesn’t want to save money this year? Whether you’re trying to start saving for retirement, have more in an emergency fund, or just have more money for fun this year, sleep apnea can help.
Sleep apnea treatment can potentially save you thousands of dollars a year in medical costs. Some studies estimate that people with sleep apnea pay thousands of dollars more each year in medical expenses than those without sleep apnea. Even saving a fraction of that money will make sleep apnea treatment worth it.
And think how it can help your budget to avoid a drowsiness-related car accident this year.
What If You’ve Already Tried CPAP?
Of course, some of you are probably thinking: I’ve already tried treating sleep apnea with CPAP. I couldn’t stick with it.
Here’s the good news: there’s more than one way to treat sleep apnea. People who have tried CPAP but gave it up can benefit from alternatives that can be just as effective, but are much more comfortable and convenient. We offer oral appliance therapy, which holds your airway open by repositioning your jaw.
To learn how you could benefit from this CPAP alternative in Columbus, OH, please call (614) 848-5001 today for an appointment with sleep dentist Dr. Mike Firouzian at Firouzian Dentistry.
