Why Your Tongue Is In The Way of a Good Night’s Sleep

It’s a simple fact.  You can’t sleep if you can’t breathe.

Snoring is the siren that warns you and the world that your brain isn’t getting the oxygen you need when you sleep.

What Causes Snoring? Snoring happens when there’s a partial blockage of the airflow through the mouth and nose. And there’s only one cause: that giant muscle in your mouth. Yes, that’s right, we’re talking about your tongue.

At it’s simplest, snoring is a problem of having a big tongue and a small mouth. If for example, you have a size 12 tongue and a size 8 mouth, your teeth in the front and sides of your mouth give your tongue nowhere to go but backwards when you lie down to sleep. And when it falls backwards, it blocks the air moving through your throat as you breathe.

Now, usually when we think of a snorer we think of that overweight guy with no neck that looks like a retired football player. But a significant number of snorers are thin – not a pound overweight. Sure, being overweight can cause a “fat tongue,” which can make snoring worse. But the tongue is a muscle. And as it loses muscle tone or relaxes (for any number of reasons) it drops back in the mouth, partially closing the airway to cause snoring. Eventually, the tongue can even drop back all the way to totally block the airway and cause more serious sleep related problems.

So anything you do to cause the muscles in your mouth to relax – specifically the tongue – will result in snoring and in many instances, make it worse (louder).

One thing you’ll hear people say is that they only snore when they drink alcohol. That’s because alcohol is a muscle relaxer. And relaxes the tongue – causing it to partially block the airway.

Or sometimes they’ll say they only snore when they sleep on their back. But when their “significant other” elbows them and they roll over the snoring goes away. You know why? It’s simple. Gravity is pulling their tongue back and partially blocking the airway.

So why does a partially closed airway cause snoring? Envision a garden hose without enough water pressure. If you put your thumb over it to close the opening in the hose, you increase the speed, force and pressure of the water. Now imagine the air in your throat – which works the same as the hose. When your tongue falls back to block your throat – the air accelerates creating turbulence. It’s the same reason airplane engines are so loud. Air goes in at one speed and comes out much faster. And your bedroom sounds like an airport during the holidays.

As a snorer you might think, "It’s not my tongue.  All the noise is coming from my nose...  I've got a deviated septum, partial blockage, or some other nasal problem that has nothing to do with the tongue." Then why don’t snore when you’re awake?

It’s simple. Nothing different happens to your nose when you sleep. Now, let’s go back to the garden hose example. The noise being made is not from the water hitting your thumb, it’s from the water hitting the garden wall with greater pressure. But if you move your thumb away, the noise goes away. And the same goes with snoring. If you bring the tongue forward and open up the airway it slows the airspeed and reduces the turbulence. And makes the snoring go away.

The #1 Dual-Action Snoring Solution: Most mouthpieces try to stop snoring by bringing the jaw forward. Since the tongue is attached to the jaw this will indirectly bring the tongue forward. However, just bringing the jaw forward is rarely enough to stop snoring and clear the way for air and a good night’s sleep.

Fortunately, Dr. Jonathan Greenburg – a dentist with an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering – realized that snoring was a biomechanics issue. In particular, a tongue issue, and decided to go right after it, instead of just relying on the indirect approach used by everyone else. And after much trial and error, he invented the only snoring solution with a patented tongue-elastic that controls the tongue and prevents it from sliding backwards. Like a seat belt for the tongue, it stops it from falling backwards to block the throat’s critical airway, the root cause of snoring.

Unlike other solutions and boil-and-bite mouth pieces – which can fix one problem and cause others (advancing the jaw too much, dry-mouth, mouth breathing, TMJ, headaches, teeth shifting, etc.), Dr. Greenburg’s solution simply fits teeth like railroad tracks and keeps your tongue where it needs to be.

As a result, his hybrid appliance immediately opens up the airway. And it has instantly helped countless people whose snoring keeps them or others awake.

Restored Hope: After so many sleepless nights and failed snoring solutions, it’s easy to give up hope of ever getting a good night’s sleep again. But Dr. Greenburg’s technological marvel that goes by the name ZYPPAH (Happy Z spelled backwards) is guaranteed to work and is backed by a 90-day guarantee. Return to the nights of good sleep with Zyppah.