Surveys show that 70% of people have difficulty getting enough quality sleep. But what can they do? There’s a lot of science and folklore around ways that you can improve your sleep. But much of it is unsubstantiated or only weakly supported by science. It’s not well known which of these methods of helping yourself sleep actually work.

To try to get more information about these techniques, the BBC recently conducted an informal sleep challenge in which people voluntarily tried a technique to help improve sleep for three nights. Then they reported back with mixed results.

But treating sleep apnea will improve your sleep and the amount of rest you get at night.

How Well the Sleep Techniques Worked

The Sleep Challenge included six different techniques for improving the quantity or quality of sleep:

  • Controlled breathing to reduce stress
  • Warm bath or shower 1-2 hours before bed
  • Eating two kiwi fruit an hour before bed
  • Remove electronic devices from the bedroom and turn off all screens at least one hour before bed
  • Skipping alcohol for a few days
  • Take a 20 minute walk or run first thing in the morning to reset the body’s clock

All of these techniques have some science to back them up, although it is not always a lot of science.

The technique that got the worst results was the kiwi fruit. Only a third of people said it helped, and a significant number said their sleep actually got worse.

All the other techniques were about equally effective: about half of people said it helped, and about half said it didn’t.

As a result, it seems like these are all approaches that people can try to get more and better quality sleep. But none of them should be counted on to improve your sleep.

A Sleep Technique You Can Count on

If you are really looking to improve the quality of your sleep, sleep apnea and snoring treatment can help.

If you snore at night it’s a sign that you’re not breathing freely during your sleep. Your airflow is restricted and getting less oxygen makes it harder to achieve and maintain deep, restorative sleep. Sleep apnea is the extreme case of this: your airflow is actually being cut off completely at intervals through the night, choking you and forcing you to wake partially to restore breathing.

Snoring and sleep apnea treatment can restore your airflow and help you sleep better. You’ll not only notice better quality sleep in terms of falling asleep and staying asleep, you’ll wake up more refreshed in the morning and have more energy throughout the day.

If you are unhappy with the quality of your sleep in Omaha and you think that snoring or sleep apnea may be to blame, please call (402) 493-4175 today for an appointment the Advanced Dental Sleep Treatment Center.