Snoring – New Help from a New Therapy
“Physician Heal Thyself (and then others) of Thy Snoring!”
Snore by Noemi Manalang
How I fixed my own snoring in Aspen, CO:
After chiropractic school, I decided to move to Aspen, Colorado. I had always wanted to live in the mountains, and when I got there, I knew I was home!. Something about the beautiful canyons and crystal clear mountain air enthralled me. I came alone with just a few dollars in my pocket, a short housesitting job and a sense of adventure. Soon the housesitting ended and I was looking for whatever I could find for next-to-nothing. The cheapest living space was at the edge of this very small town, living with six other young women and a creepy old man (the owner) in a townhouse. Space was tight, but as long as we had room for ski clothes and hiking boots, and a few clubbing outfits, we were happy. I was a little older then most of them, in my thirties at the time, but they were gracious and invited me to go clubbing with them almost every night.
One night I woke myself up with my own snoring! I was personally a little amused, but I could just imagine what my twenty-something roommates would think (“old fart…”). So, it couldn’t continue. Luckily my well-trained hands could reach just about all the body parts involved, so I went to work. Physician heal thyself!
I started with my chest and worked my way up my neck to my jaw and sinuses. Ten minutes of that brief routine for a few nights and I felt pretty sure that I wasn’t snoring any more. What a relief.
A Quiet Beach Vacation
My next snoring client was my Mom:
I didn’t think much about it again until I was staying at a small beach house on vacation with my mom. She was snoring a little, just as I had. And by this time, (it took about ten years) she believed in my abilities as a therapist and doctor. So when I asked her if I could treat her before bed, she welcomed it. Twenty minutes later and her snoring was fixed and I could sleep too.
All the other snorers I treated:
Every now and then, I would do update snoring sessions on myself and my mother. And every time I was in the position of having to sleep with other people who snored, I offered my services. These snorers were a often a little more challenging. As I worked with people with generalized long-term chronic tension (middle aged men are prone to this), chronic asthma and sleep apnea, it became evident that they would benefit from more frequent sessions at first, and then follow up with therapy for the underlying conditions to keep the sleep disturbances (for everyone) at bay.
Help with sleep and snoring was always one of the positive side effects of Upledger’s CranioSacral Therapy. As therapists, we were more often presented with more complex health issues, and the clients may not have even noticed that their sleep was better. I didn’t think much about it for a while, but then I started working with my own sleep by programming it Magic Nights style. I became interested in all things sleep related. And I remembered about my success with snoring.
I realize snoring is a big, and underserved, problem:
After doing a little research, I realized what a big problem it was and how seemingly little was out there in the way of effective treatment. The kind of comprehensive deep-tissue release therapy, like CranioSacral Therapy (CST), that I had found worked so well was never mentioned as an option. I looked at my own hands and thought, “But it’s so easy!” And a new marketing idea was born. Every time I mentioned that I treated snoring, ears would perk up, accompanied by a few nervous chuckles. It seemed that most people had a problem with snoring themselves or knew someone who did. I ran out of business cards very quickly.
Adding another treatment option to the snoring menu: CranioSacral Therapy
Now it’s my dream that all those big sleep clinics will have CST trained personnel on staff. But there’s no need to for you to wait. There are qualified CST practitioners all over. Just look for the therapists in the Upledger site with at least four dots in CST, then maybe some in brain curriculum or other courses as a bonus:
http://www.upledger.com/
Have a Magic Night!