06:18 PM Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, November 22, 2005

By Brandy Aguilar / 3TV Producer

Is snoring a problem in your household?

Does it wake you up at night or is it keeping your loved one from getting any sleep?

A new treatment is helping both parties.

This treatment doesn't involve surgery or medication. It actually involves a massage that is turning those restless nights into peaceful ones.

Three Valley women have one thing in common. They can't get through the night without snoring.

It's gotten so bad their husbands aren't getting much sleep anymore.

"My husband, who snores himself, he's said to me several times, 'Wake up and stop snoring.' You kept me awake all night,'" Carole Egler said.

"My husband says I do this snoring thing and wake myself up a lot of the time," Sally Pinkstaff said. "If I'm on my back, I would snore the worst and he would wake me up and get me to sleep on my side."

To fix the problem, they all turned to Scottsdale chiropractor Dan Secrest.

Secrest relies on a new therapy known as ZHT.

Each treatment begins with breathing techniques that will be used during the therapy and at home. But this isn't your typical breathing exercise. Clients are literally trained to bark. Yes, bark like a mean dog.

"That is really to help free up the diaphragm, in part," Secrest said.

Now it's time for the other part of the therapy, a massage. But not the kind you're thinking. It's actually pretty rough, leaving red marks on your neck.

"It's a soft-tissue mobilization and so it's a very aggressive massage," Secrest said. "We're working under the jaw line, around the trachea, the muscle supporting the trachea, and then it's kind of unconventional.

"These muscles are getting very tense, very tight, spasms especially under the jaw line. So we are releasing them and as we release them, it allows airways to open up, the head comes back."

The massage lasts anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes.

While it doesn't look like much fun, these women say they'll do just about anything to control their snoring.

"Whatever it takes it's worth it because I have more energy and I sleep better and I just feel better," Pinkstaff said.

"This seems like a much more holistic approach to the problem," Carolyn Haldeman said. "I would rather treat the whole body than the head."

Secrest said his patients are seeing snoring relief anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

"Improved energy, decreased blood pressure, increased oxygen levels, which is really going to boost your immune system and help issues you're dealing with or future ones, especially for us married folks," Secrest said. "Bye bye, snoring and bye bye, sleep apenea."

"I think if we can fix this as quietly and easy and pain free as it is, I'm willing to do it forever how long," Haldeman said.

The ZHT technique has only been around for a year.

The price at Secrest Chiropractic starts at $75.