Didgeridoo Helps with sleep apnea?

archangle wrote:I was never able to figure out how to play the digeridoo while sleeping.

I have a problem sleeping with someone (PLAYING) a Digerioo, I can't sleep with my fingers in my ears, maybe a chinstrap would help. I've heard sitting in the woods chanting as trees also lowers Sleep Apnea, I do that and save the PVC for my drains. Jim

What's circular breathing?

insylem wrote:What's circular breathing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkA_pxHaNZQ

xenablue wrote:You don't even need a didgeridoo - it's the circular breathing that is the issue.

Mary Z wrote:I have read that 30 minutes a day- religiously- may help. It's the circular breathing I believe that gives the benefits.

You have it exactly backwards.

There are no studies that show that learning circular breathing techniques help with sleep apnea.

The researchers who did the studies on didgeridoos have stated that the advantage is due to exercising and vibrating the throat muscles. This improves muscular tone and nerve response. Circular breathing does not provide this benefit.

The researchers went so far as to say it will help to play the didge even if you don't use circular breathing technique.

But the bottom line is that there is no scientific consensus about the benefit of didge playing. (The very small Swedish study that got so much media coverage a couple of years ago has been largely discredited by researchers.)

IMO, your time would be much better spent working on CPAP therapy, diet, exercise and sleep practices.

Circular breathing is breathing in continuously through your nose and out through your mouth - at the same time. Not a rhythmic in-out-in-out like regular breathing.

cheers,
xena

I'd like to see an ultrasound of that.
How do you get air to go two directions at a time through one passage?
Maybe if I grew a second trachea?

archangle wrote:I was never able to figure out how to play the digeridoo while sleeping.

Won't work with a ffm--has to be a nasal mask or nasal pillows, from what I understand. Please note, however, that use of the didgeridoo during sleep WILL throw off your AHI estimates for the night, and especially snores, which means that some brands of APAPs will run away with the pressure during the playing. So I would suggest that it may be best to stick to didgeridooing while awake. Especially at first. Eventually you can ease into the sleep-playing with the imaginative use of a little blue tape. Just don't tell your RRT.

insylem wrote:What's circular breathing?

It's where you breath in, blow it out your rear, and recirculate the breath. You have to do it under the bed covers for it to cure your apnea though.

I suppose you can make a rig with PVC pipes too though ...

I have been circular breathing for years. I first learned it when I began playing trumpet in middle school and I continue to use it to this day. My untreated AHI is 55.

Circular breathing has done nothing for my OSA. Well, maybe my untreated AHI would have been worse than 55. . .?

mikewithe wrote:I have been circular breathing for years. I first learned it when I began playing trumpet in middle school and I continue to use it to this day. My untreated AHI is 55.

Circular breathing has done nothing for my OSA. Well, maybe my untreated AHI would have been worse than 55. . .?

That is correct.

The didgeridoo massages the airway muscles and this might have some minor positive effect on sleep apnea.

I suppose if you are accomplished at circular breathing you can get more out of didge sessions. But it is the massaging not the circular breathing that supposedly helps with sleep apnea.

With circular breathing, you puff up your cheeks with air, and then quickly inhale through your nose before the air in your cheeks all leaks out. You can keep blowing air out through the didgeridoo continuously.

Sounds like it would be really messy with a milkshake.

chunkyfrog wrote:Sounds like it would be really messy with a milkshake.

LOL, I thought it was gonna be messy too, but son drank half of it first - it was really just a continuous series of bubbles, and only until the shake lost it's 'thickness'.

It was 20-years ago, but this thread brought the fun memories back for me watching my kid with such determination on his face that he was going to play a didge properly. He's 35 now, and still annoys people with it every now and then

cheers,
xena

If you want to give it a try, here's a video that shows how:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21tze9Y6dmk

chunkyfrog wrote:Sounds like it would be really messy with a milkshake.

That is why you want to do it naked beside a pool.