Sleep apnea is a potentially serious, chronic health condition characterized by brief pauses in breathing while you're asleep. Although oropharyngeal exercises don't work for all kinds of sleep apnea, they may provide an effective supplemental treatment for less severe cases of obstructive sleep apnea. As a long-term health disorder, sleep apnea requires ongoing management, so always work in close consultation with your healthcare provider to determine the most appropriate treatment options for your sleep apnea.
The Facts
Sleep apnea breathing cessations typically take place numerous times each hour, and each breathing interruption -- called a hypopnea -- generally lasts 10 to 20 seconds or longer. As the most common form of sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, occurs when your airway becomes blocked, typically by relaxed throat muscles that allow soft tissue in the back of your throat to occlude the opening. Depending on the severity of your OSA, common treatment options include lifestyle alterations, oral devices, breathing machines and surgery.
Oropharyngeal Exercises
Traditionally used by speech therapists to aid in overcoming speech difficulties, oropharyngeal exercises tone the muscles of your tongue and soft palate. These exercises typically involve practicing specific speech sounds, as well as movements and tasks that require suction, chewing, breathing and swallowing. One of the breathing exercises requires you to inhale through your nose, then blow up a balloon. During an exercise that incorporates both chewing and swallowing, you must chew and swallow bread while keeping your tongue in a resting position behind your teeth. When used for the treatment of OSA, oropharyngeal exercises work the muscles of your tongue and soft palate in an effort to strengthen them and minimize the tissue collapse and upper airway blockage that leads to sleep apnea symptoms.
Studies
Oropharyngeal exercises may reduce sleep apnea symptoms in individuals suffering from moderate OSA, according to a study published in the May 2009 issue of "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine." During the clinical trial, a team of researchers led by Dr. Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho from the University of Sao Paulo Medical School randomly chose participants from a group of 31 OSA sufferers. Selected participants performed an assortment of oropharyngeal exercises 30 minutes daily over the course of three months. Those who performed the exercises experienced a significant reduction in individual apnea episodes and snoring severity. More than half -- 62.5 percent -- of these participants experienced such a drastic reduction in symptoms that their sleep apnea was re-categorized from moderate to mild. Non-exercising participants demonstrated no significant change in symptoms.
Considerations
As a low-cost, non-invasive therapy, oropharyngeal exercises provide a potentially promising OSA treatment option. However, Catriona Steele, Ph.D., practicing speech-language pathologist and University of Toronto professor, notes that additional research must be done to isolate specific exercises that lend the most significant improvement in sleep apnea symptoms. Talk to your sleep specialist if you're interested in using oropharyngeal exercises to help manage your sleep apnea. In most cases, your doctor will opt to use oropharyngeal exercises in conjunction with traditional treatment options, such as weight loss, surgery and continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which is the most common treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea.
References
- National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke; Sleep Apnea Information Page; December 2010
- "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine"; Effects of Oropharyngeal Exercises on Patients with Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome; Dr. Geraldo Lorenzi-Filho, et al.; May 2009
- "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine"; On the Plausability of Upper Airway Remodeling as an Outcome of Orofacial Exercise; Catriona Steele, Ph.D.; May 2009
- "Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society"; Sleep Apnea; Dr. David White; March 2006
