{"id":895,"date":"2026-05-01T20:07:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swamiramanandsantashram-sad-sahitya.org\/ayurplanet\/?p=895"},"modified":"2026-05-04T18:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T18:54:37","slug":"conch-blowing-could-be-effective-treatment-for-sleep-apnea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swamiramanandsantashram-sad-sahitya.org\/ayurplanet\/2026\/05\/01\/conch-blowing-could-be-effective-treatment-for-sleep-apnea\/","title":{"rendered":"Conch Blowing Could Be Effective Treatment For Sleep Apnea"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Conch Blowing Could Be Effective Treatment For Sleep Apnea<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Conch Blowing Could Be Effective Treatment For Sleep Apnea<\/span><\/div>\n <\/a>\n <\/article>\n <\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Medically reviewed by\u00a0Carmen Pope, BPharm<\/a>. Last updated on Aug 12, 2025.
via HealthDay<\/p>

TUESDAY, Aug. 12, 2025 \u2014 Want to ease your\u00a0sleep apnoea\u00a0and get a better night\u2019s sleep?<\/p>

Blow through a conch shell, a new pilot clinical trial says.<\/p>

Regularly blowing through a conch shell (shankh) for six months, like Disney princess Moana or Anchorman legend Ron Burgundy, significantly improved sleep among a small group of people with sleep apnea.<\/p>

Patients blowing a conch slept better, felt more alert during the day and had fewer breathing interruptions at night, researchers reported.<\/p>

Conch blowing might prove a reasonable alternative to using a continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) machine, in which a face mask blows air to keep a patient\u2019s airways open while sleeping, said lead researcher\u00a0Dr. Krishna Sharma<\/a>, director and head of pulmonology at the Eternal Heart Care Center and Research Institute in Jaipur, India.<\/p>

While CPAP is the gold standard treatment for sleep apnea, many patients find it uncomfortable and noisy.<\/p>

\u201cFor people living with obstructive sleep apnea, especially those who find CPAP uncomfortable, unaffordable, or inaccessible, our findings offer a promising alternative,\u201d Sharma said in a news release. \u201c(Conch) blowing is a simple low-cost, breathing technique that could help improve sleep and reduce symptoms without the need for machines or medication.\u201d<\/p>

Blowing a conch shell, also called Shankh blowing, has been part of Indian culture for thousands of years, he explained.<\/p>

\u201cIn my clinical practice, several patients reported feeling more rested and experiencing fewer symptoms after regularly practicing shankh blowing \u2013 a traditional yogic breathing exercise involving exhaling through a conch shell,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>

Based on these anecdotes, Sharma and colleagues designed a small clinical trial to see if the simple, ancient practice might help people with sleep apnea.<\/p>

In sleep apnea, a person stops breathing repeatedly during the night because their airway collapses, causing them to wake. Sleep apnea patients often snore loudly, and have a higher risk of high blood pressure,\u00a0heart disease<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0stroke<\/a>.<\/p>

Researchers think conch blowing might help by exercising the muscles of the airway.<\/p>

\u201cThe way the shankh is blown is quite distinctive. It involves a deep inhalation followed by a forceful, sustained exhalation through tightly pursed lips,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>

\u201cThis action creates strong vibrations and airflow resistance, which likely strengthens the muscles of the upper airway, including the throat and soft palate \u2013 areas that often collapse during sleep in people with obstructive sleep apnea,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe shankh\u2019s unique spiraling structure may also contribute to specific acoustic and mechanical effects that further stimulate and tone these muscles.\u201d<\/p>

Researchers recruited 30 people with moderate sleep apnea and randomly assigned 16 to practice blowing through a conch shell. The other 14 were taught a deep breathing exercise.<\/p>

All participants were encouraged to practice either conch blowing or deep breathing for a minimum of 15 minutes a day, five days a week.<\/p>

After six months, the people armed with conch shells were 34% less sleepy during the daytime than those practicing deep breathing, results show. They also reported better sleep.<\/p>

Sleep lab tests showed that those blowing a conch shell experienced on average four to five fewer episodes during the night in which they breathing stopped during sleep, as well as higher oxygen levels during sleep.<\/p>

\u201cThis is a small study, but we are now planning a larger trial involving several hospitals,\u201d Sharma said. \u201cThis next phase will allow us to validate and expand on our findings in a broader, more diverse population and assess how shankh blowing performs over longer periods.\u201d<\/p>

Future studies also will test to see how conch blowing affects the muscle tone of the airways, and compare the practice directly against standard treatments like CPAP, Sharma said.<\/p>

Sophia Schiza<\/a>, head of the European Respiratory Society\u2019s group on sleep-disordered breathing, reviewed the findings. She said conch blowing might fill a need for more treatments for sleep apnea.<\/p>

\u201cThis is an intriguing study that shows the ancient practice of shankh blowing could potentially offer an obstructive sleep apnea treatment for selected patients by targeting muscles training,\u201d Schiza said in a news release.<\/p>

\u201cA larger study will help provide more evidence for this intervention which could be of benefit as a treatment option or in combination with other treatments in selected obstructive sleep apnea patients,\u201d added Schiza, a professor of pulmonology and sleep disorders at the University of Crete in Greece.<\/p>

The new study appears in the journal\u00a0ERJ Open Research<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>

Sources<\/strong><\/p>