Sleep is vitally important for your mental and physical health. However, if you’re always fatigued, feel like you’re waking up drowning, or create an uproar during sleep due to snoring, it may be due to a serious issue lying underneath, and, in such cases, you may be suffering from sleep apnea. Approximately 20 million Americans are affected by this condition which is very common yet not very easily understood, and if untreated, can lead to dire health issues.
In this article, we will address what sleep apnea is, what its associated symptoms and risks are, and what one can do if they feel like they have this condition. The right diagnosis of the symptoms can enable you to seek treatment for deeper undisrupted sleep in a healthier state.
What Is Sleep Apnea?
Patients with sleep apnea find it difficult to breathe while sleeping, causing them to wake up abruptly throughout the night, which leads them to not have a restful night. This, in turn, breeds other health issues due to a lack of sufficient oxygen supply to the body and brain. There are two main types of sleep apnea:
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA): The most common type of sleep apnea where a person’s throat muscles relax too much and make it difficult for someone to breathe, which restricts one’s airway.
Central Sleep Apnea (CSA): Such a type occurs when the brain muscles are unable to command the muscles that aid in breathing wSA is certainly much less prevalent and is also associated with other diseases, especially heart or neurological disease.
Both forms of sleeping apnea obstruct a person from having proper sleep which in turn does have a bearing on a person’s health as well as functionality during the day.
Common Symptoms:
Every person has a different experience with sleep apnea, however, some symptoms are almost ubiquitous. Quickly identifying these should assist someone in getting the right diagnosis.
A particularly striking observance would be the loud, chronic snoring with intermittent choking and gasping and possessions. These episodes are very common in people with sleep apnea as they tend to stop inhaling.
Another manifestation of the condition may be exacerbated sleepiness as well as tiredness during the day. People suffering from sleep apnea could sleep for seven or eight hours only to feel like they are still tired because they were not able to sleep properly due to constant interruptions.
Choking or gasping during sleep is another indicator of this condition. For many, waking up in the night and not understanding why they can’t go back to sleep whilst struggling to breathe.
Other indicators include morning headaches, discomfort in focusing, heightened irritability, and shifts in mood, all of which are associated with a nightly state of hypoxia. Waking up with a dry mouth also fits this picture because it indicates that you had been breathing too much with your mouth during your sleep.
Last of all, another cause of concern is nocturia as some sufferers of sleep apnea complain about going to the toilet several times even during sleeping hours.
Risk Factors:
Sleep apnea can occur in anyone, but some factors heighten the probability of catching the disease.
Obesity is one of the prime contributory factors. Apart from being a health hazard, excess fat deposits around the neck may cause narrowing of the airway, causing Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Age is another factor. Although there are pediatric cases, the older generation, particularly middle-aged adults are more frequently affected.
The chance of men suffering from sleep apnea is higher than that of women, but the chances for women increase significantly post-menopause.
In addition, the common ones such as high blood pressure or atherosclerosis, tobacco use, excessive alcohol consumption, and even a family history of sleep apnea will all be contributory. People genetically having narrow airways or having craniofacial structural abnormalities might stand at greater risk as well.
It would be advisable to take definite measures over the issue if you experience prominent symptoms of sleep apnea along with any of these risk factors.
Analysis and Management:
Sleep apnea is characterized by a potentially dangerous degree of sleep disruption and routinely requires a physician knowledgeable in sleep medicine and extensive studies. To accomplish diagnosis, many sleep physicians utilize the following two instruments:
Polysomnography (PSG): This study is performed at a sleep hospital or sleep unit. In this overnight study, rather than clinical signs or indicators, one’s breathing patterns, oxygenation, and brain function records are taken whilst the patient is asleep.
Home Sleep Tests (HST): Instead of going to a sleep lab, an HST patient uses a small instrument right at home. This nocturnal monitoring quantifies airflow, oxygen, and effort to breathe at home with fewer wires attached.
The treatment of obstructive apnea will, as diagnosed, vary with the severity of the disorder.
In simple cases, improvement in the sleeping disorder can be achieved with modification and management of some habits including losing weight, not drinking alcohol before sleeping, and turning onto one’s side while sleeping.
For moderate to severe cases of OSA, continuous positive airway pressure devices (CPAP) are routinely recommended. CPAP devices give positive pressure, to the windpipe when one is sleeping and falls asleep without the worry of the throat collapsing.
One such intervention is an oral appliance that advances the tongue and jaws; alternatively, one could perform a tracheostomy or reposition the upper airway.
Health Consequences of Neglected Sleep Apnea:
The long-term effects of ignoring sleep apnea are not favorable toward health and wellness. For one, high blood pressure is a common side effect in those suffering from sleep apnea because blood flow is inhibited due to the brain’s inability to control the body during sleep recurrence.
Sleep apnea quite potentially increases heart disease and the odds of having a stroke. Sleep itself only invites tension and stress with recurrent bouts of oxygen levels dropping throughout the rest making it difficult for the patient to breathe.
Type 2 diabetes, issues with the liver, along with issues remembering and concentrating, are other effects. The mishaps in such cases would occur more frequently – injuries at home and road accidents – primarily due to exhaustion which then causes less focus.
So indeed, understanding this condition is in the best interest of those affected because seeking medical help might be able to save them from irreversible damage.
FAQs:
1. Is waking up with the need to gasp for air a clear indication of suffering from sleep apnea?
There are a variety of conditions that result in one’s sleep apnea and point towards the particular disorder that needs to be treated as soon as possible, saying that waking up with discomfort or gasping for air is a good sign.
2. What is the prevalence of sleep apnea?
Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common forms of sleep apnea across the United States, where about twenty-two million people suffer from the disorder. What’s even worse is that this ailment is largely unnoticed and therefore untreated.
3. Why is obesity such a cause for concern when it comes to sleep apnea?
If a person is obese, they are at a higher risk of developing sleep apnea as obesity leads to an increase in fat deposits around the neck which may in turn, interfere with breathing and maintaining an open airway during sleep.
4. Should all people we concerned that they have sleep apnea?
It is important to consider that not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, considering that for many, snoring is a norm and does not necessarily interrupt normal sleeping patterns. Choking and loud snoring, however, are heartbeat away from indicative signs of sleep apnea.
5. So what age group, is sleep apnea more common in and should it be a cause of concern?
The common assumption is that kids do not suffer from sleep apnea but that might not be true. A risk factor for children can be larger tonsils and adenoids, however, if there are red flags like severe snoring or pauses in breath then it is important to seek help from a pediatrician.