There are actually some studies on ways to increase the strength of the airway through various exercises (people who play reed instruments are much less likely to have sleep apnea, for example)
I would love a link to such studies. I'm a musician, and reed instruments are far from monolithic. In particular, double reed instruments are played with small amounts of air and high back pressure compared to single reed instruments. My guess is that it's the double reed players - oboe and bassoon - who might experience some airway-related benefits.
With the CPAP machine, I snore rarely, and when I do, alcohol is typically involved.
I'll have to reflect on my tiredness and the quality of sleep that follows it.
I think you have your answer already - if alcohol makes your apnea symptoms worse, it sounds like you're experiencing at least something of what I've experienced and am talking about - to me, anyway. Again, a call for your doctor.
Am I correct in the assumption that you do not use a CPAP machine? Is it that you are not recommended to use one, or that you choose to do without it?
That's correct, I do not and have never used a CPAP machine. I had no awareness of my own snoring or sleep apnea, and didn't exhibit the symptoms of daytime sleepiness or anything else that would suggest I had it. But my wife said I did, and she described exactly what would happen when I'd stop breathing - a bit frightening to hear about for the first time! - so I both experimented with various things here and began seeing doctors and having sleep studies.
I should add, because it's important to my individual case history here, that I never exhibited any symptoms of sleep apnea until I had my back injury - when I hurt my back, the only position I could sleep in was on my back when, before that, I always slept on my side. It turns out that my sleep apnea is quite positional in nature - as long as I sleep on my side, I have no symptoms.
So, in my case, the diagnosis was "mild to moderate" sleep apnea, and no mention of positional issues because the study really was just a bunch of numbers - all the times my breathing had problems where all the times I was sleeping on my back. Now I sleep with a thin pillow, try to sleep mostly on my side, and am mindful of the state of my fatigue when I go to sleep at night. All those things together, I do fine without the CPAP. The doctors did recommend the CPAP - I don't think they have any choice about that when the results show some interruptions of breathing. I have never tried it and, so far, so good without it. The back injury's 20th anniversary will be this coming Fall, and I feel like I have a good handle on how sleep apnea fits into my life.
-S-