Should I Rename This The Breathe Right Strip Blog?

From yet another reader:

First, thanks for the Breathe Right tips. I always though they were a gimmick, tried them for sleeping this past week based on your experience. Darn things work. I've slept better the past two weeks than I have in a long time. And, that has made a difference in my energy levels and allowed me to get in more exercise.

UPDATE: Another reader writes:

Four or five nights now. No congestion. Post-nasal drip all but gone, constant nagging cough likewise.

Thanks.

Gee, if I had a readership as large as Instapundit, I could make a measureable impact on the productivity and health of America!

I neglected to thoroughly scrub my nose last night, and as a result, the Breathe Right strip let go a bit at the edges, reducing the "opening" effect a bit. As a result, I woke up a couple of times in the night, and my sinus congestion was definitely worse this morning.

That's My Job, To Improve The Health of My Readers

I've mentioned my positive experiences with the Breathe Right strips--and some of my readers have profited from it:

Reading your blog prompted me to try these strips for about a week now.

I am definitely getting a deeper sleep.
I feel my appetite has decreased and I seem to feel full faster when I do eat. I'm 5'9", 270 lbs, so this has to help.

But most satisfying is that my dreams have become more peaceful. Normally I have terrible nightmares with incredibly tense scenes and ones of complete fustration, even to the point of being woken unable to breathe. I assume this is because I actually did stop breathing. I still dream a bunch but haven't had the hell scared out of me for about a week now.

I don't know about the snoring - my wife says she so used to it she's blocked me out at night.

I'm sold on these strips!

Another reader had a somewhat different experience as a result--and from reading about my screen-eating grasshoppers:

After reading your blog note on Breathe-Rite strips, I located a couple of strips left over from when I used to use them regularly some years ago and put one on last night. (I had stopped using them because the adhesive was removing too much of my nose skin.) Result: who knows if I had better sleep or not, but I sure had a weird dream. I had a dream that a massive swarm of grasshoppers or locusts had been spotted, and that people were warned to take refuge in their houses. I did so, and somehow developed the idea that I urgently needed to turn off the HVAC system to keep them from entering that way. At that point I woke up.

And:

I know this may come as a surprise, but my purpose for writing is to thank you for your "sinus surgery' article.

I am facing the same kind of surgery, so your play-by-play action was comforting...it at least helped stop the radical path ones mind can take when assuming what it is "really like" with no substantive knowledge.

This may seem like an unlikely metaphor; however, your article was a lot like my first seeing slides of Cairo, Egypt before moving my family there for a two-year graduate school internship in 1989. When I saw those slides, I was enlightened, or at least, forewarned. I believe your article will do the same thing for me; albeit in a much different setting.

I spent Friday through Monday visiting some friends in the Reno area, and photographing antique guns as eye candy for the next book. Unfortunately, I took the small/medium sized Breathe Right strips, which do not work quite as well for me. I'm sure whatever progress I was making on weight loss was completely defeated by a couple too many excellent meals in some of the Reno casinos. (One of the friends we were visiting had made some four digit wins the previous day on the slot machines, and insisted on buying us dinner.)

UPDATE: Another blogger reports on taking my advice:

Clayton tried Breathe Right Nasal Strips. Reading of his success, I tried them and had three of the best nights of sleep, I have had in the several years.

Interesting Benefits of the Breathe Right Strips

I've lost three pounds since Sunday morning. This is consistent with the improved quality of sleep that I have been experiencing. I still have a few weeks before the CPAP titration study, so I can keep seeing if this makes the progress I need. If I can manage three pounds a week between now and the CPAP titration study (a definite optimistic assumption--I know that keeping a linear progression on this is difficult), I will be down twelve pounds--enough progress that in combination with the Breathe Right strips, I should get increasing improvements in sleep quality.

Another benefit is that I have regained a sense of smell. I have had limited abilities to smell anything but the strongest aromas for a long time, because of sinus congestion--and now, all sorts of subtle smells are readily available! It isn't quite like regaining eyesight--smell just isn't that critical of a sense, and at times, it's actually an advantage!

Three Nights of Breathe Right Strips

First of all, there are two sizes of Breathe Right strips: one for small/medium noses, and one for large noses. I originally bought the small/medium size; I have a large nose, although on the small end of the large strip size. At this point, I have used these for three nights, the first of which was with the small/medium size.

There's no question that I am sleeping better with these. I either have not woken up at all during the night, or perhaps once (last night). Ordinarily, I wake up two or three times a night. I usually go right back to sleep, but waking is almost certainly a result of the obstructive sleep apnea, and thus a sign of impaired sleep.

I am definitely feeling more energetic when I am awake. When I first wake up, I do not bounce right out of bed (as I usually do) but since I feel so much better when I am finally up, this is a reasonable trade-off. It may be that I am coming out of deeper sleep using the Breathe Right strips, and thus it takes longer me to get fully awake.

My sinuses are definitely clearing more during the night, which may be a big part of the improvement in sleep quality. The appointment for the CPAP titration study isn't until early September, so I may wait another week or two to cancel that.