This may sound like a funny question, perhaps even a touch of sarcasm. But, reality moves in strange and wondrous ways, and life is often stranger than fiction. Believe it or not, research has revealed that playing the didgeridoo can significantly diminish or eliminate both daytime sleepiness and…yes…snoring.
Snoring takes place because the upper part of the back of the throat becomes a little soft and moves downward somewhat into the air passage, partially obstructing breathing. This results in the sound of snoring; it’s a subconscious attempt by the sleeping person to push that flap of skin out of the way so that more air can more easily flow into the lungs.
Needless to say, this has some negative side effects. Spouses or lovers of people who snore get woken up throughout the night, so that they don’t get sufficient sleep. And the person who snores may awaken himself throughout the night as well. This at least partially accounts for the daytime sleepiness problem.
People who aren’t getting sufficient sleep suffer from a lot of problems. Depending on how bad their sleep deprivation is, these problems can range from irritability to poor work performance to depression. It’s also frightening to realize that people who are sleep-deprived get into twice as many car accidents as those who get sufficient rest.
Snoring can be so bad that people have resorted to surgery (which is hit and miss, at best, in its effectiveness); being hooked up to air-forcing machines at night (doesn’t that sound like fun?); and to special inserts fitted over the teeth at night that push out the gums a little so as to allow more room for more air (supposedly pretty successful, but then there’s the side effect of possibly pushing your teeth out of alignment and reported morning soreness of the mouth…and of course you remain dependent upon that little piece of plastic).
Snoring especially starts to afflict people who are over age 35, as by that time the muscles at the back of the throat have been worn down a little by the wear and tear of life and aging. This can have some negative effects on a marriage. Furthermore, that makes snoring a sign of possible aging, and we don’t want any such signs!
So…back to the didgeridoo. This is that long, strange-sounding Australian Aboriginal wind instrument. A didgeridoo only plays one tone. Different didgeridoos play different tones, but these are typically C, C#, or D. Given this fact, this snake-like wind instrument is actually a rhythm instrument, not a melodic one. The player produces rhythms through the controlled breathing into the didgeridoo.
And that’s where the aid with snoring comes in. Of necessity, in order to play the didgeridoo, you’ve got to have strong upper air-passage muscles. Playing the didgeridoo requires you to develop what is known as “circular breathing”. This technique, long sought after by professional horn players, means that you are simultaneously breathing in (through your nose) and breathing out (through your mouth). Think that doesn’t take some power in the upper air-passage muscles to pull off?
When those muscles are strong, the skin doesn’t flap down into the throat and snoring does not take place.
A few years ago, some Swiss researchers got wind of the idea that didgeridoo players had relatively little problem with snoring regardless of age, and they wanted to see if practicing the instrument really could be used as a cure for the potentially dangerous condition of sleep apnea.
So they took in a group of 25 volunteers, all of whom reported problems with snoring and daytime drowsiness. One part of the group was given daily didgeridoo practice (20 to 40 minutes) for four months. The other group was put on a waiting list.
At the end of four months, everyone in the didgeridoo practicing group had significant improvement. All symptoms of drowsiness and snoring were significantly diminished or had disappeared. Their spouses and partners all reported better sleep, too. Meanwhile, the people on the waiting list still had their problems.
“Larger trials are needed to confirm our preliminary findings, but our results may give hope to the many people with moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and snoring, as well as to their partners,” wrote the researchers.
It should be noted that nobody in these studies had severe, life-threatening sleep apnea. Even the didgeridoo might not be able to provide them with the cure they want. But for the common snorer, playing didgeridoo may be like a miracle–for her and for her husband!