While you sleep, you do odd things. If you’re married or sleep with your significant other, they can attest to it. From stealing the bedsheets to talking while slumbering, the unconscious mind and body become a different kind of consciousness during rest.
Some people realize that they bite their tongues while sleeping because they develop symptoms. In severe cases, tongue biting can lead to significant injury.
Symptoms include:
- Bleeding
- Swelling
- Ulcers
- Pain
- Raw edges
Whether the behavior just started or it has become a nuisance, it’s important to address it. Left untreated, the area can develop an infection, nerve damage, or sores.
We offer some tips on what to do to stop biting your tongue while sleeping.
1. Reduce Stress
Medical professionals believe that several nocturnal behaviors come from stress. People can effectively lie to themselves and ignore the warning signs of stress while they go about daily life.
If the stress remains prolonged, symptoms will manifest themselves. For example, some people lose their hair. Others gain weight.
At night, stress catches up and it manifests itself in other ways. For example, some individuals grind their teeth.
If you grind your teeth while snoozing, you can easily bite your tongue too.
Thus, to stop biting your tongue, reduce stress.
Top stress relief activities include:
- Exercise
- Meditation
- Listen to soothing music
- Avoid illicit drugs
- Connect with others
The goal is to loosen up the feelings of anxiety.
2. Pick Up a Mouth Guard
Mouthguards provide several benefits. Athletes wear them to protect their teeth during physical competitions. Other people wear them after experiencing injuries to the jaw during the healing process.
The most common reason why individuals wear mouthguards is to protect their teeth from grinding at night. Teeth grinding leads to harmful effects. It makes the teeth vulnerable to damage and decay. Plus, individuals develop mild headaches and lose sleep.
If you don’t grind your teeth while sleeping but do bite your tongue, a mouthguard offers a viable solution.
The guard’s material will protect it by absorbing the force when you clench. Instead of biting your tongue, you will bite the guard.
Never slept with a mouthguard before? Check out these tips.
3. Avoid Consuming Illicit Drugs
American attitudes toward drugs continue changing. As more substances gain legal status, Americans consume them in greater numbers recreationally.
However, the legalization of harmful substances doesn’t remove the bad effects they have on the human body.
Individuals who consume uppers might realize that they started biting their tongues while sleeping. It’s an unconscious side effect of substances.
Uppers have a higher possibility of causing muscle twitches. They contain stimulants that throw the body’s natural chemistry out of whack.
To test the theory, stop consuming them for a week or longer. Then, figure out if your tongue feels better.
4. Check Your Prescriptions
It’s not only illicit drugs affecting the population; prescription medications continue affecting the public too.
Prescription opioids bind themselves to the natural opioid receptors that the body produces. The combination of the two leads to prompt addiction and the potential for muscle spasms.
Drugs prescribed by a doctor aim to change the body’s chemistry to reduce pain in most cases. The side effects of this approach are well-documented.
Chemical-induced muscle spasms result from electrolyte imbalances. Thus, check in with your doctor. You might require a change in medications or dosage.
5. Participate in a Sleep Study
If stress hasn’t entered your life to a large degree and you don’t consume illicit or prescription drugs, consider participating in a sleep study.
The medical community uses sleep studies to diagnose sleep disorders. Ongoing tongue biting qualifies as a sleep disorder. In this case, the medical professionals will monitor your movements. They also measure your brain waves, breathing patterns, and heart rate to find out one thing can link to another.
Undergoing a sleep study is a nice way to obtain some peace of mind.
Conclusion
Those who notice that they wake up with discomfort in their tongue might be biting it while sleeping. Like every other part of your body, your tongue plays an important role in daily life. Therefore, take some steps to find out what is happening. Short- and long-term solutions exist.
