When I was first dealing with my severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) many years ago, I spent thousands of dollars on all kinds of solutions, however unusual they seemed. At the time, my sleep was so bad that I couldn't function at work, my brain was always in a fog, and I was easily irritated most of the time.
I purchased a device that helped exercise my "smiling" muscles, which didn't give me any significant improvement. I went to my dentist and tried a device that suctioned the tip of my tongue and had a bulb attached to it, to my keep my tongue extended. I didn't get much sleep that night because it was so uncomfortable. I even tried a chin strap and again, it didn't help much, if at all. I went back to my dentist and had him create a mouthpiece to keep my lower jaw extended. It was expensive ($500) and it worked fairly well, but the results were unpredictable, sometimes I would get okay sleep but other nights, I would still stop breathing. There were many other devices and ideas that I tried, including a CPAP device. All to no avail.
There was one that gave me immediate relief though, it was a zero gravity chair that I slept in for quite a while until I figured out some basic exercises to improve my posture. That works if you are single but not so great when you are in a relationship.
What I ultimately determined is that almost all of the devices I tried could never give me near-perfect sleep by themselves. The reason is that my situation was a bit complicated, maybe more so than the average sleep apnea sufferer. It took solving at least five different pieces of the puzzle before I finally solved it.
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