Cluster Two: Breath and Position
We are now ready to fall asleep. Sight and sound are fixed. The bed is ready—and inviting. So are the sheets, blankets and pillows. We lie down in bed and take a nice, long breath. But the breath isn’t easy to take—at least not when we are breathing through our nose. It seems that our nose is stuffed up or very dry. We want to sneeze or we have to breathe through our mouth in order to take in air. Maybe this doesn’t happen when we first lie down. We do fall asleep with air primarily coming through our nose. Then early in the night we wake up and find it hard to breathe or at least find that our mouth and throat are very dry. We get out of bed and find some water to drink by our bedside or in the kitchen refrigerator. This happens many times during the night—leading to a low-quality sleep.
Another scenario. We are lying down in bed and moving from side to side in order to figure out which is the most “comfortable” position for us. There is a bit of a dilemma. We love lying on our left side or our right wide; however, we are likely to stay awake in this position. When we flip over to the other side. It is not quite as pleasant—but we actually are more likely to fall asleep on this side. We might even find that we are more likely to snore when sleeping on one and/or are more likely to wake up frequently on either the left or right side. And what about sleeping on our back or belly? These choices might lead to even more or less temporary comfort, restlessness, or mouth-breathing.
How do we position ourself? We curse the God of Night for messing with our sleep position. We flip back and forth. If we are sleeping with someone, then they are not likely to appreciate our shifting –and we might be annoyed with them for their own movement from side to side. I would suggest that it is time for us to take on a role that I have often suggested in this series of essays on high quality sleep. We need to become our own Sleep Scientists.
We need to make note of what happens when we lie in a specific position. This not only enables us to plan more carefully and effectively for our night of sleep but also to feel less helpless (and hopeless) about our sleep. As I have already noted, hopefulness is sleep-inducing.
Appliances
The challenge of sleep apnea is great for some people. I devoted most of a previous essay to an understanding and appreciation for the important role that breath plays in our life as sleepers. This often requires that we change the environment in which we are trying to sleep by making use of a C-PAP machine that filters the air that we breath and moves us away from mouth breathing. However, this option is very expensive, leads to inconvenience in preparing for sleep and to many hassles during the night. In short, as we found in our survey, C-PAP machines are not for everyone.
