While not many entrepreneurs think about it, airway health is important in anyone’s life. It can greatly impact energy, focus, and overall performance. Issues like sleep apnea, poor breathing habits, and airway obstructions can lead to chronic fatigue, brain fog, and decreased productivity, things no entrepreneur can afford. So, what can you do to ensure this doesn’t happen to you? Keep reading to find out!
How Airway Health Impacts Your Entrepreneurial Performance
Research indicates that airway health significantly influences cognitive function and productivity, which are critical for entrepreneurial performance. Conditions like sleep apnea can lead to many symptoms that negatively affect workplace productivity.
Studies have shown that individuals with sleep apnea will experience higher rates of workplace accidents, increased absence, and reduced efficiency.
What Are Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Obstructive Sleep Apnea?
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) isn’t just about snoring or restless nights; it can significantly affect your energy, concentration, and overall well-being. Among the various SDB conditions, obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common ones, characterized by repeated airflow blockages during sleep.
Sleep-disordered breathing can manifest through various symptoms, including:
- Snoring: Loud or frequent snoring, indicating potential airway obstruction.
- Hypertension: Elevated blood pressure associated with intermittent oxygen deprivation.
- Mouth breathing: Habitual breathing through the mouth, especially during sleep.
- Teeth grinding (bruxism): Involuntary clenching or teeth grinding, often during sleep.
- Insulin resistance: Reduced sensitivity to insulin, affecting blood sugar regulation.
- Narrow upper palate: A constricted upper jaw, potentially impacting airway space.
- Obesity: Excess body weight, which can be both a cause and effect of sleep apnea.
- Daytime fatigue: Persistent tiredness during the day due to disrupted sleep cycles.
- Restless legs: An uncontrollable urge to move the legs, typically during rest periods.
- Cracked teeth: Damage resulting from chronic bruxism.
- Overeating: Increased appetite, possibly linked to hormonal imbalances from sleep deprivation.
All of this will lead to restless sleep, which will decrease your work efficiency. As a result of this, your performance will suffer.
What Can You Do to Combat Sleep Apnea?
There are many airway health solutions, and you should talk to your primary care doctor and get a referral to a specialist so that you can receive professional medical treatment for any sleep-disordered breathing condition you may have.
But there are some things you can do at home that will help you alongside whatever treatment you and your doctor decide on. So, let’s take a look at those options.
Change Your Sleep Position
Seems a little silly, but certain positions, like sleeping on your back, can worsen your sleep apnea. So, switching it up and sleeping on your side may lessen symptoms like snoring.
If the most comfortable position for sleeping for you is on your back, consider modifying some of your sleep clothes. Sewing a pocket in them and placing an object like a tennis ball onto it on the backside will make sleeping on your back uncomfortable enough without hurting you that you will roll back on your side.
You can also use a head-positioning pillow that is designed to support the neck and promote better airflow. These pillows often feature a wedge shape or contoured design and are suitable for both back and side sleepers.
You can also buy a body pillow or a pregnancy pillow, this will allow you to comfortably sleep on your side without the risk of rolling onto your back and making the sleep apnea symptoms worse.
Limit Your Alcohol Intake
Making sure you drink less alcohol, especially before sleep, will positively impact your sleep apnea. Drinking alcohol before bedtime can worsen your sleep apnea by prolonging and increasing the frequency of breathing pauses.
Furthermore, alcohol also decreases the amount of oxygen circulating in the blood, which is already a problem people have when they have sleep apnea. This can put stress on your heart, lungs, and other organs, making it more difficult for your body to function as it should.
Get More Exercise
More exercise will help your sleep apnea symptoms and your sleep health in general. And this is a really good thing that will help you in terms of productivity and performance at work.
Exercise will not only help with weight loss, which can help with sleep apnea symptoms, but also help with improving your metabolism, blood pressure, and daytime sleepiness.
On the other hand, even exercise without weight loss will benefit people who have sleep apnea. Aerobic exercise tones muscles, including the ones of the upper airway. Which in turn will allow increased airflow and reduce the symptoms you have from your sleep apnea.
Relieve Nasal Congestion
A stuffy nose will block the flow of air through your nasal passages, this will make your sleep apnea symptoms worse. Various factors, such as allergies, infections, and the anatomy of your nose, can cause nasal congestion.
If you have a stuffy nose, regardless of why, you should have a saline nasal spray available to you at night to flush out any allergens from your nasal passages and alleviate your symptoms. Similarly, you can also take antihistamines as a nasal spray or oral tablet, which will help reduce the inflammation inside your nose.
Furthermore, if your nasal congestion is caused by dust, pets, and pollen allergies, vacuuming and cleaning your bedroom regularly will help alleviate your symptoms. Also, taking a shower before bed will get rid of any allergens from your hair and body. Additionally, if you live in an area with a lot of pollen and are allergic to it, making sure that your windows at home and in your car are closed will help reduce the amount of pollen that makes its way into your home.
Lastly, if you are able, consider using a high-efficiency particulate air filter in your HVAC and maybe even your vacuum to help reduce the amount of allergens in your home. Similarly, you can also invest in an air purifier for your bedroom.
Whatever you decide to do, just know that your airway health directly contributes to your sleep health, directly impacting your entrepreneurial performance. So, prioritizing it is a smart way to increase your productivity at work.