How much more might you get done today if you’d awakened more refreshed this morning? Do you even remember what being wide awake in the morning feels like? It turns out morning grogginess is common. It’s the number one sleep complaint heard by author Michael Gelb, DDS, MS, clinical professor at NYU College of Dentistry. “People are just exhausted on awakening,” he said. Gelb talked with Nieca Goldberg, MD, host of national SiriusXM radio show “Beyond the Heart” and answered listeners’ calls, explaining how they can breathe better, sleep better, protect their health and reduce snoring with over-the-counter products such as Mute.
“It’s not just that we’re not getting enough hours of sleep, it’s about our quality of sleep. Our airways very often are not open enough and we have some degree of constriction or resistance or narrowing of the airway,” said Gelb, an expert on this subject. “Of course it gets worse when you lay down at night.”
You can blame sleeplessness on evolution, not your flat pillow. Gelb explained that, “Our faces are shrinking. As our brains have gotten bigger, our faces have become more recessed.” He noted that kids’ mouths commonly don’t have room for their wisdom teeth anymore, and our jaws and sinuses are shrinking. “It’s become an endemic problem that a lot people have difficulty with their sinuses, difficulty breathing through their nose. And you see that if you walk into a Walgreens, walk into a Duane Reade, how many of these things are being sold over the counter that open up our airways.”
One solution to improve breathing? Gelb drew a lot of interest from listeners after he advised, “To keep the nose open at night we use Mute nasal stents. That just props the nose open, it improves nasal breathing and it really cuts down on snoring.”
As Gelb explained, “It’s adjustable in size, they come in small, medium and large depending on the size of your nostril. It doesn’t let the first part of the nasal airway collapse as we breathe in and breathe out.”
Gelb recommended starting with the simplest solutions for breathing issues: over-the-counter products, such as Mute. If you want to awaken more refreshed and try Mute tonight, you can find it at most major pharmacies. Use our store locator to find Mute, sleep better and feel better.
