Is Snoring Disrupting Your Relationship?

This is a true story, not one I made up for a blog post (I swear!) I am what people would refer to as a “light sleeper.” This wasn’t really an issue growing up because fortunately I had my own quiet, dark space to sleep. Then in 2008, I got married and haven’t slept well since! My husband is the opposite of me- he sleeps through anything- lights on, tv up, a freight train running through our room. I tolerated this for years before it was time for me to kick him out to our guest room. We both slept better- I wasn’t waking him up asking him to roll over to stop snoring, and he wasn’t in my room making noise! However, I then found it difficult when we wanted to go on vacation together or when we had guests at our house and he moved back into “my room”. I finally got to the point, where we had to do something different.

Around that time, I started the journey of learning more about sleep through some other dental courses I was taking. I also realized that my husband had the ability to sleep, but even after sleeping all night he was waking up tired. He would complain about being tired, after I watched and listened to him sleep all night long. I was tired, he was tired, I was mad, and he was mad. It was SO frustrating. We finally had him sleep tested and found out his snoring and fatigue was a result of his sleep apnea. Within a week of getting the results of his home sleep study, I started him on a dental appliance and a week following that he was not snoring anymore AT ALL. I’m serious. He moved back into our room and for the first time in 3 YEARS we slept in the same room. Going from spouses sleeping in separate rooms, that were tired, grumpy, unhealthy and unhappy to being back together, better rested, and less angry was life and relationship transforming!

Aside from the health issues related to snoring, disrupted breathing, and fatigue related to poor sleep quality for an individual, the bed partner also tends to suffer. Poor quality sleep can lead to fragmented relationships. Research shows an increase in stress, depression and fatigue in females with a sleep partner that snores. It doesn’t take long working in this field to hear the stories from couples that experience anger and resentment built up between them directly because of an untreated medical condition. One of the major benefits of treating sleep apnea is that typically oral appliance therapy will resolve the sound of snoring as well. There are exceptions in the case of nasal snoring, but even that can be managed/treated with the appropriate therapy. You have to seek the solution, and we are here to help. I’m passionate about this because I’ve experienced it. Let’s start the process of making your quality of life and relationships better. Call for an appointment with Sleep & TMJ Co. and let’s make things better.