213: Ronda Holman, Co-Founder of Airway Coach: How Airway Dysfunction Sabotages Your Sleep—and What You Can Do to Fix It!

Jun 18, 2025

Ronda Holman, known as The Airway Champion and Co-Founder of Airway Coach, shares her journey from struggling with undiagnosed airway disorders to advocating for better breathing practices. She discusses how mouth breathing negatively affects sleep quality and overall health. Ronda highlights the importance of proper tongue posture and offers actionable strategies for improving sleep through breathing techniques. Listeners will also learn about the impact of nighttime routines and community support in achieving better sleep.

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ANECDOTE

Ronda's Personal Airway Journey

Ronda Holman grew up as a dysfunctional breather with many health issues and dental problems.
She only realized the root of her lifelong tiredness after learning about airway and sleep breathing problems.

INSIGHT

Distorted Sleep Baseline Explained

Many people accept waking up tired as normal but that is a distorted baseline.
Upper airway resistance syndrome often causes poor restorative sleep despite normal apnea tests.

ADVICE

Advocate For Your Sleep Health

If sleep reports look normal but you wake exhausted, be your own advocate and consider airway issues beyond apnea.
Don't wait for apnea to worsen; take action to improve your sleep breathing now.

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Ronda Holman is The Airway Champion. She is the Co-Founder of Airway Coach a revolutionary approach to helping humans learn to help themselves breathe better while they sleep by developing protocols and systems to be preformed daily. She is a 25 year, US Airforce trained, dental assistant who has spent her entire career looking at airway disorders and their negative effects in the mouth.

She has dedicated the last 5 years helping patients and strangers understand the negative affects of oral breathing on their oral health. Ronda runs the airway protocol for her general dental practice helping patients rule out sleep apnea and find custom solutions to breathe better while they sleep.

Ronda not only has a passion to help people discovered the root cause to so many non-communicable diseases, but she grew up with an undiagnosed airway disorder herself. After connecting the signs to the symptoms it is her mission to help others learn to see the signs so they can advocate for themselves. Many people do not understand the bio mechanics a breathing. Nor do they understand the detrimental effects over breathing/mouth breathing has on sleep quality. Ronda had extraction retraction orthodontics completed when she was 12 years old. She was diagnosed with upper airway resistance syndrome when she was 37 years old. Ronda then made a choice to either live with struggling to breathe during sleep every night and continue to watch her oral health decline or make a change to improve her airway health. She shares her passion every day to help people understand the difference between sleep (surviving) and quality sleep (thriving) and its inter-relationship between airway health and breathing.

Here is the link to all of the tools that have helped other humans breathe better while they sleep. https://msha.ke/airwaycoach

SHOWNOTES:

😴 Why Ronda believes your function matters not just your CPAP machine

😴 The airway-health clues hiding in your mouth right now

😴 Tools that changed her life: lip tape, nasal dilators, foam rollers, and headstands?!

😴 Why your sleep isn’t “fine” just because you’re not gasping for air

😴 How to identify if you're a "habitual mouth breather" (and what to do)

😴 The #1 indicator that your breathing habits have truly changed for the better

😴 Curious to learn more about your airway health? Ronda is offering a 1-on-1 Zoom session. Enjoy 10% oFF using code SLEEPISASKILL10
https://www.airwaycoach.com/offers/6Pa73oez?coupon_code=SLEEPISASKILL10

😴 And many more!

SPONSORS:

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GUEST LINKS:
Instagram: the_airway_champion

DISCLAIMER:

The information contained in this podcast, our website, newsletter, and the resources available for download are not intended to be medical or health advice and shall not be understood or construed as such. The information contained on these platforms is not a substitute for medical or health advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation.

Next Steps To Upleveling Your Sleep -

Website: https://www.sleepisaskill.com/

‘Sleep Obsessions’ Monday Newsletter: https://www.sleepisaskill.com/newsletter

8-Week Wearable Group “Optimize Your Sleep” Program: https://www.sleepisaskill.com/optimize

Sleep Is A Skill Podcast: https://www.sleepisaskill.com/podcasts

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mollie-eastman-sleep-is-a-skill-82531825/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollie.eastman

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/SleepIsASkill

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy-IU372xapHLvXnZRbXU7A