Ep #48: Why the Tongue Affects Sleep with Nada Makki-Karnib

Mind Body Mouth with Dr. Vijaya Molloy | Why the Tongue Affects Sleep with Nada Makki-KarnibAs I have learned more about sleep disorders, I have learned about the importance of myofunctional therapy. A lot of the symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing and sleep apnea have become so normalized that parents and professionals alike are having difficulty identifying them. So how do you know if your child is displaying typical child or toddler behavior, or whether something else is going on?

Nada Makki-Karnib is a speech pathologist and myofunctional therapist who looks at the functioning of the muscles in the face, and how they impact breathing, speech, and sleep in children and adults. She assesses and treats oral dysfunction from birth right through to adulthood, and joins me this week to talk more about who might need myofunctional therapy, the tongue, and how it affects sleep.

In this episode, discover the role of the tongue in eating, speaking, and sleeping and the importance of correct tongue positioning from an early age. Nada shares how mouth breathing and sleep-disordered breathing can lead to an increased risk of mental health and anxiety disorders, and some habits you can adopt in your busy lives to help you develop your tongue and jaw muscles.

I have a crazy busy lifestyle, and the only way I can sustain it is by putting specific habits in place to ensure I have enough energy to get through the day. And I’m sharing the secret with you! I have put all this information together into an easy-to-follow online course: Bounce Out of Bed With Energy: The 5 Week Reset for Exhausted Women. It is USD $149 and you can use PODCAST15 to get 15% off at checkout, but be quick, the discount is only available for the first 50 purchases. Click here to sign up.

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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:

  • Why we should all be breathing through our nose.
  • The importance of tummy time in the development of core body muscles for babies.
  • How the nose is designed to do the breathing and filtering of the air we breathe.
  • The link between vitamin D levels and adequate jaw muscles.
  • Some tips to help older children with breathing.
  • A simple exercise you can start today with your children relating to nasal breathing.
  • Why chewing is so important for the development of jaw muscles.
  • Some red flags in young children that show they may be in need of myofunctional therapy.

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