The Snoring Lady

The launch of the Amazon 'Dash button' got me thinking... I love that the Internet of Things is happening... but what does it say about us? Press a button and 'ta-da' the thing that you need is delivered the next day. As a working mum, it's great that re-ordering could be made so easy... put one of these buttons on the washing machine and when you're running low on detergent, press the button and new detergent arrives. But is this indicative of our need for immediacy? We want an immediate 'cure' for this and 'fix' for that. Don't want the sustained effort of calorie reduction and exercise? - No, I'll have a pill please. This is what I see increasingly in medicine and healthcare. We're increasingly impatient to wait for a doctors appointment, so we Google our symptoms, and no doubt scare ourselves to death that we have some terrible condition... and succumb to the latest quick fix. We self diagnose ourselves rather than waiti

Today is World Wide Web Day . Hoorah. I'm such a fan. I love online shopping (much easier with 2 small children), I'm always using social media, and I love music and video on demand. I get drawn into the latest gadget and I'm passionate about how the web has the ability to be inclusive... so don't get me wrong, I love technology. Oh, and without it I'd not be able to blog! :-)  However, we need to be aware of the flip side to the myriad of benefits the web brings us. I believe that the web and associated technologies are literally crippling us. Our need to be permanently switched on and our fixation with screens has a physical affect (so called ' text neck ') and it goes further than that. It affects our sleep, which in turn affects just about every aspect of life, from health to happiness.  Blue light (that's the light that comes from our smart phones, tablets, laptops, most TVs etc) blocks the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, inevitably

Why is it that no one wants to 'fess up' to snoring? Tell someone that they snore and you'll probably get rebuffed (or some slightly less polite variant!). Or you'll be told that you snore, etc etc.. and so it disintegrates into a "who snores more" competition. The statistics on snoring vary greatly, from 25%-50% of the population being affected, and I'd suggest that many more people will occasionally snore - perhaps after a few too many alcoholic drinks, certain over the counter medications etc. So if this is such a common issue, why aren't we more open about it? I hope that in time it will be a bit like mental health and one day we will feel happier to talk about it. Is it because it is something that happens in the bedroom, and we're usually pretty tight-lipped about that! Snoring might be just anti-social... noisy and disturbing for those around you, but it could also be a symptom of sleep apnoea, which has connections to so many hea

Houston, we have a problem. OK, the problem is not at NASA - it's bigger than that. In books, cartoons and films, snoring is used to show that someone is asleep... (t hink Zzzzzzzzs coming out of their mouths in a speech bubble, and noisy snoring and you've got the picture.) My 4 year old son is already aware that snoring isn't good (poor boy!) - he now points it out when we read a book together.  The problem is that if you're snoring you're not breathing properly...  and this will be disrupting your own sleep and that of those around you. (Have you ever tried to sleep when you can hear a snorer?!) So, let's start a revolution . Let's stop signifying sleep with snoring. It's fundamentally wrong and it is reinforcing the misplaced belief that snoring can be ignored. More on that another time! Take it easy. TSL #thesnoringlady

Hi there! I’ve been passionate about the impact of untreated snoring and sleep apnoea for a number of years. I joke that I’ve become a sleep ‘bore’… in that I will talk about the role of quality sleep on health and happiness until the proverbial cows come home! How ironic – to bore people to sleep when talking about sleep! Haha! Seriously though, I’ve affectionately become known as The Snoring Lady … hopefully because of my drive to help more people get effectively treated for snoring and sleep apnoea, rather than for sending people off to sleep… If you want to find out more about        My experiences of working with sleep clinics and therapy providers        The importance of sleep        The impact of snoring on the snorer and those around them        My experience as the wife of a snorer        Snoring and sleep apnoea     New treatment options         The irony of talking about sleep as a sleep deprived mum of 2(!) In a jargon free way, keep coming back o