Sleep Apnea could affect the handicap of golfers

Sleep apnea is a condition where someone stops breathing for ten seconds or more that is caused by disruption on the airflow, this cause loud snorting sounds and force the sufferer to wake up in order to resume breathing.

Sleep apnea can cause excessive sleepiness during the day because the quality of sleep is reduced greatly. This condition on golfers may affect their handicap. A test is conducted at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, America.

Where some golfers with sleep apnea / chronic snoring is treated with NPAP (Nasal Positive Air Pressure) which gives continued compressed air through the throat to prevent the throat tissue to collapse and close the airways. This is the cause of loud snorting and make the sufferer gasp for air.

These golfers after playing golf for 20 rounds for over three to five months show improvements on their handicap while other golfers with the same problems that do not participate in the test are showing no improvements. Other benefits that the golfers gain is they are less sleepy during daytime after the treatments.

This shows that sleep apnea can affect someones performance when doing golf because golf requires a great deal of focus, and a clear mind. Tiredness and sleepiness that is causes by sleep apnea can really disturb the mind of a golfer and can make the golfer easily frustrated and making the wrong decision that can affect the performance.

Sleep apnea can also cause high blood pressure and can increase the risk of heart attack, one way to handle this is by using stop snoring aids such as NPAP and jaw supporter. Other than that, snoring can also be reduced by performing stop snoring exercise.