Snoring is often associated with poor sleep quality. Studies suggest that the soft palate is one of the causes of snoring. Snoring is also linked to learning and behavioral problems in children that are often mistaken for disorders such as ADHD.
And prescribing stimulant ADHD drugs, like Ritalin for snoring, only makes matters worse. According to recent findings, there is growing evidence that sleep disorders contribute to a greater risk of being overweight.
In a study on sleep-disordered breathing among 100 overweight kids, in the age group of 7 to 11 years, kids were put on an exercise regimen of 13 weeks, that included ‘high-dose exercise’ (40 minutes every school day) and ‘low-dose exercise’ (20 minutes).
The workouts consisted of games like basketball and tag. And by the end of the program, half of the children who snored had stopped snoring. Greater improvements were seen among the ‘high-dose’ exercisers.
With regular exercise, the body fat comes down, which in turn makes less fatty tissue in the neck creating more room in the airway, thus improving the breathing.
The study suggests that kids need to exercise for one hour everyday after school, and be more active by playing games like basketball, soccer, tag, jumping rope and do some aerobic exercise. Children need to move around a lot and perhaps cycling can also help.
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