Sleep Divorce
It's time to get back into bed together
Your snoring can raise the roof. And this annoys your family and makes you feel embarrassed. You've tried nose strips, mouth guards, and adjusting how you sleep...but nothing helps. It's now become so bad that it drove your bed partner to sleep on the couch. It's not your fault. We're here to help. Let's get you back in the same bed as your partner!
What is a sleep divorce?
A sleep divorce is when one person leaves the shared bed to get uninterrupted sleep elsewhere. Usually the living room couch. The most common reason for a partner to abandon their bed is – yep, you guessed it – snoring.
A Better Sleep Council survey revealed 85% of Americans struggle with sleep, with 32% attributing it to snoring.1 Remedies ranged from sleeping apart, the snorer retreating to the sofa, solitary napping, having opposite sleep schedules, to using earplugs or building a wall of pillows to drown out the clamor.
But this is no laughing matter. Snoring is a sure sign of a nighttime breathing issue, and possibly even obstructive sleep apnea.
Jessica had options to resolved her sleep divorce
After trying to sleep like a standing horse, affixing strips to her nose at night, and wearing mouth guards not designed to address the cause of her snoring, Jessica did her research.
She turned to ADVENT for help. “They really took care of everything…I knew every step of the way what the next step was," she says. A conversation with Dr. Kandula, ADVENT’s co-founder and ENT doctor, opened her eyes to the fact that most people breathe through their noses, not their mouths. This revelation stunned Jessica, who had been a mouth-breather all her life.
Dr. Kandula suggested a simple 20-minute in-office treatment that would enable Jessica to breathe through her nose. "I was up and going within 24 hours... it was the best decision I had made," Jessica shares. Three years post-procedure, she breathes through her nose effortlessly, has more energy, and her husband is back sleeping in their bed. "Life is good,” she affirms.
3 steps to end your sleep divorce:
1: Get Your Breathing Triangle Evaluation
First, we listen. At your new patient appointment, you’ll discuss your symptoms and goals with a Sleep & Sinus Specialist. You’ll also get a thorough Breathing Triangle Evaluation to help identify any underlying issues.
2: Uncover the Root Cause
Depending on your symptoms you may get an in-office CT scan or home sleep study to better understand the source of your snoring.
3:Treat Your Snoring with Simple Solutions
We offer several simple in-office options to ensure you have a healthy Breathing Triangle and to address your snoring. Depending on your diagnosis, you may be a candidate for: Balloon Sinuplasty, Turbinate Reduction, Nasal Cryotherapy, Snoreplasty, Uvulectomy or Oral Appliance Therapy
Sleep divorce FAQs
A sleep divorce means one person leaves the shared bed to sleep elsewhere. Snoring is the No. 1 cause of a sleep divorce, but other bothersome nighttime conditions like sleep apnea, may also cause the unafflicted partner to flee.
For starters, sleep deprivation or fragmented sleep that can happen to both people as a result of snoring, sleep apnea, or other nighttime intrusions keeps both partners on edge, exhausted, and possibly suffering from the ill effects of too-little sleep. Pair this with anxiety about bedtime approaching, dependence on alcohol to help you fall asleep (this backfires, by the way, by impacting sleep quality2), relying on sleep aids or nasal sprays, and blocking the noise with ear plugs or white noise, and you could be headed for a sleep divorce.
ADVENT offers Balloon Sinuplasty, Turbinate Reduction, Nasal Cryotherapy, Snoreplasty, Uvulectomy or Oral Appliance Therapy to help treat snoring and sleep apnea.
Read more: Oral Appliance Device vs. CPAP for Sleep Apnea.
“[Sinus surgery] is not our first option or something that we have to do. There are other less invasive options we can start with first."
"A uvulectomy is a procedure that can be done in the office or in the operating room. The uvula, which is a combination of soft tissue and muscle, hangs down from the middle of the soft palate and can partially obstruct the airway at night, contributing to sleep apnea or contributing to snoring."
Pratik Patel, MD
"Snoreplasty adds in a hardening agent to stiffen the soft palate and uvula to prevent rattling of those structures in the back of the throat. That this is not our first option or something that we have to do. There are other less invasive options we can start with first. We do this if other options are not working for treatment for snoring. We like to be sure that the nose is open and then trial of OAT for treatment. If patients are continuing to struggle with using these, we may consider removing part of the uvula to open up the airway more and reduce rattling or movement."
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References
- Survey: American couples have trouble in bed. The Better Sleep Council. 2017 April 9. Accessed 2023 June. https://bettersleep.org/research/survey-american-couples-have-trouble-in-bed/
- Park SY, Oh MK, Lee BS, Kim HG, Lee WJ, Lee JH, Lim JT, Kim JY. The Effects of Alcohol on Quality of Sleep. Korean J Fam Med. 2015 Nov;36(6):294-9. doi: 10.4082/kjfm.2015.36.6.294. Epub 2015 Nov 20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666864/
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Don't Ignore Your Sleep Divorce
