March 21, 2021

How To Increase Oxygen Levels While Sleeping: 3 Easy Tips

Do you suffer from sleep apnea, a chronic lung condition, or something else that affects the quality of your sleep?

These are just a few of the many possible reasons you may have of low oxygen levels during sleep.

In case you don’t know, the level of oxygen in our blood has a direct impact on our body’s basic functions, so you want to make sure you’re getting enough.

In fact, regardless if you have a specific medical condition or not, it would pay to know how to increase oxygen levels while sleeping.

What Are the Symptoms of Low Oxygen at Night?

Oxygen levels will fluctuate, but some people suffer from the adverse effects of not having enough oxygen as they rest.

How can you be sure you are indeed suffering from the same condition?

Here are the most common symptoms of this:

Chest pain
Shortness of breath
Lightheadedness
Confusion
High blood pressure
Rapid breathing
Dizziness
Vision problems

These things may be noticeable right when you wake up, but they may also occur throughout the day.

As laypeople, understanding sleep research on your own may be next to impossible.

As such, if you are worried about the negative effects of not having enough oxygen while sleeping, talk with your primary care physician as soon as possible.

Only he can help you better study and understand what you are going through.

Who knows? He might even recommend that you see a specialist to address your concerns more thoroughly.

Before we talk about how to improve oxygen levels, let us first talk about what the possible causes are.

What Causes Low Oxygen During Sleep?

What causes low oxygen level, low level of oxygen when sleeping

Before learning how you can increase oxygen levels while sleeping, start with the problem’s root cause first.

Why do you have a decreased oxygen level in your blood when you sleep?

One typical reason is a change in breathing patterns, which is possibly a result of lung compression or lung limitations.

These issues can be the result of medical conditions, your sleeping position/s, how extreme your snoring is (sleep apnea), or your breathing pattern, among other things.

Like any other problem, if you can determine what is causing your low oxygen, you can address it more appropriately.

Consider if one of these things may be the culprit in your case, and then adjust your ways to improve that issue.

Increasing Your Body’s Oxygen Levels

To feel well-rested, we need more than just good sleep; we need properly oxygenated sleep.

Here are some things you should know about increasing oxygen levels while sleeping.

Tip 1: Learn How To Improve Oxygen Levels in Your Body

When learning how to increase oxygen levels while sleeping, many focus strictly on what they are doing in bed.

In reality, the secret lies in addressing your lung health on a larger scale.

Your body and blood needs to be adequately oxygenated all day long, not just at night.

By improving how well your body takes in oxygen all the time, you can also improve your oxygen levels at night.

Improve Your Diet

green leaf vegetables, green vegetables help your oxygen level when sleeping

Start by eating a well-rounded diet and making sure you take supplements as needed for any nutrients you lack.

People who suffer from anemia, in particular, will have a hard time getting enough oxygen into their bodies while resting.

Reduce your risk for low oxygen level issues by eating enough iron-rich food, dark green leafy vegetables, and food high in vitamin D.

Exercise and Get Outside

While you don’t need to become a marathon runner, everyone can benefit from daily exercise.

Light walking, even for just 10 minutes a day, can help improve your heart and lung functions.

These functions directly affect how well your body and blood take in oxygen, which is why it is essential to improve them as much as you can.

Ideally, try to go for a walk outside; make sure you pick a place that allows for breathing with good air quality.

Doing this will not only let you work on your lung function, but you can also get a healthy dose of vitamin D from the sun.

Tip 2: Learn How To Increase Oxygen Levels in a Room

Increase oxygen level in room, open window with view

Another way to improve your sleeping oxygen levels is to learn how to increase oxygen levels in a room.

By improving indoor air quality, the air you are breathing in will have more accessible oxygen.

Many people don’t consider that they can do this, but it is not very hard to do.

Consider these simple solutions to increase oxygen levels in the room you sleep in:

Open your windows more often if you live somewhere with good air quality
Use an air purifier at home
Make sure to change the filters in your home A/C or heating system
Add houseplants that enrich oxygen levels to your bedroom

Don’t limit yourself to making these changes only to your bedroom, too.

You can make positive changes to any area in your house by following these simple tips for breathing better air quality.

Tip 3: Treat Low Oxygen Levels While Sleeping Symptoms

Some low oxygen levels while sleeping symptoms happen as a direct result of low oxygen levels at night.

By treating these symptoms directly, you can sometimes reverse-engineer a solution to your low oxygen level.

Let’s look at a few examples of how this might work out for you.

Waking Up With a Headache

low oxygen level leads to headache after sleep, man on bed having a headache

Have you been waking up with headaches lately?

You might have noticed that these headaches only happen when you sleep on your stomach or your side.

If you sleep this way, you might be compressing your lungs because of your position and consequently impact your breathing.

In turn, this causes you to not get enough oxygen, leading to headaches the next day.

By correcting your sleeping position, hopefully, you can improve your oxygen levels while sleeping.

Your Partner Notices Breathing Changes

If you share your bedroom with someone, they may notice that you seem to suddenly stop snoring in the night, only to snore much louder a few moments later.

It can be easy to brush this off as just how you sleep. However, snoring can actually be a useful way to identify breathing issues at night.

Again, try to change your sleeping position by adding or removing pillows and see if this improves your breathing condition.

snoring and oxygen levels, try to add or remove pillows

Snoring can be the result of breathing difficulties, so you can use snoring as an indicator of how well you are getting oxygen at night.

Can Sleep Aids Help Improve Oxygen Levels While Sleeping?

Do you wonder if there are any miracle sleep aids you can use to improve oxygen levels?

Are there any sleep aids, like earplugs for light sleepers, that can help to do this for those who need more oxygen?

The answer is both yes and no.

There are sleeping masks you can use to directly provide oxygen to those who suffer from medical conditions, such as sleep apnea.

These aids, however, are medical equipment you should only use as advised by a doctor.

If you believe you might benefit from adding this type of aid to your life, talk to a doctor about getting an official diagnosis.