I had been diagnosed with sleep apnea. For those not familiar with this sleep disorder, it is the obstruction of one’s breathing while asleep causing sometimes long pauses in the breath (testing found that I would stop breathing for over a minute multiple times at night) before being jerked awake out of sleep in an agitated state. This made it very difficult to fall back asleep any time soon – only to have the breath obstruction occur again. I was sleep deprived and depressed and not in good shape.
I then went on a quest to explore the options for rectifying this very difficult and debilitating sleep disorder. I first tried a CPAP machine, which was (for me) a cumbersome sleeping machine using an uncomfortable breathing mask connected to a breathing tube that sensed when I stopped breathing and flooded the breathing tube with air strong enough to pressure through the obstruction in the mouth. Like the great majority of the people who use this machine, I could not tolerate it. The cure was as bad as the disorder. I next tried a mouthpiece, which is worn at night the rest of one’s life. The mouthpiece prevents the tongue, which is the primary culprit in obstructing the breath, from covering the esophagus. The mouthpiece is large and eventually became too much for my mouth to comfortably sleep.
At this point I was advised by my physician to explore myofunctional therapy. In this therapy the myofunctional therapist analyzes the mouth to determine what is causing the breathing dysfunction and helps the patient with a series of exercises designed to reshape, tone and strengthen the tongue, lips, cheeks and muscles in the mouth to function in the proper and natural way for unobstructed breathing (including snoring).
What a lucky break it was for me to finally find the person who could help me with this awful sleeping disorder. This myofunctional therapist, Patricia (Pat) Pine of Fountain Hills, Arizona, is a very skillful and knowledgeable moth therapist and teacher who knows what is required to train the mouth muscles to work in conjunction with each other for proper breathing. Her diagnostic abilities, teaching skills and encouragement in my work to (long last) reshape my mouth for natural breathing and essentially curing the nighttime breathing disorder of sleep apnea seems at this point to be nothing less than a miracle.
I highly recommend a consultation with Pat for a diagnosis and explanation of myofunctional therapy. Finding her and the work we did together has made my life one of greater ease and comfort and enhanced health.
