It is estimated that almost 12 million people in the United States suffer with sleep apnea . Almost half of them have one other thing in common: they are over weight. Due to these findings researchers could not help but link the sleep disorder with obesity or an excessive weight problem. This makes the condition bigger risk factor for any person to develop or suffer from sleep apnea.
An Overview
When you suffer from sleep apnea, the airways become blocked while the person is sleeping. This causes the breathing to pause, this can happen anywhere from 5 to 30 times in just an hour. The pausing of breath hardly ever leads to sudden death, but this sleep disorder could lead to other health problems. When there is a lack of oxygen, the body would send out stress hormones that could change the amount of sleep of make the body tired the next day. It may also be that untreated sleep apnea may lead to heart attacks, strokes, hypertension, and an irregular heartbeat.
Diagnosis and Risk Factors
For sleep apnea to be treated you need a correct diagnosis. Without a diagnosis a regular person could not tell if they were suffering from sleep apnea. Most often it is the roommate or partner who relays the information about the sleep apnea to the diagnosing doctor. This is usually because sleep apnea may come with a loud sound that may be alarming and disturbing to some people.
With every disorder there are certain risk factors that come with it. As earlier said, excessive weight can be a risk of sleep apnea. Studies have also found that sleep apnea occurs more in men then women. They have also found that the issue gets more common as you age. Women are more common to develop sleep apnea after they go through menopause.
The disorder is also hereditary, which means if anyone in your immediate family has a history of sleep apnea, they are at a higher risk to develop sleep apnea.
People who have smaller airways within their throats, nose, or mouth are also at higher risk to develop sleep apnea. People may have smaller airways due to the shape of structures, onset of allergies, or some other medial conditions. If children have enlarged tonsils they may also be prone to sleep apnea, regardless of their age.
You should know that even if you don’t have the common risk factors, you could still have sleep apnea, which is why it’s important that you know the symptoms and seek medical attention if you think you suffer from this condition.
Two sleep disorders that occur in children are nightmares and night terrors. Most children experience nightmares which are considered part of the normal developmental process. Nightmares can occur as soon as age two. They are most common in children between three and twelve years old. Very few children experience night terrors, as little as 3 percent have them. These sleep disorders can be very frightening to a child and may leave them in tears.
Nightmares
Several hours after you go to sleep you enter the REM stage of sleep, during this stage of sleep is when nightmares occur. During REM there is a general body paralysis and active dreaming. Although most dreams are good dreams there are some dreams that may be so frightening that they wake the child up.
Children most often can remember the dream when they awake in the morning. This nightmare sleep disorder only becomes a problem if the child has a problem going to sleep, is scared to go to sleep or is becoming sleep deprived. Remember to stay calm and be reassuring at all times if your child has a nightmare, if you become worried or frightened your child will react the same way.
Believe it or not there are ways to prevent nightmares. Keep a relaxed bed time routine. Find something comforting to do with your child before putting them to bed, weather its reading to them or telling them a story. Avoid letting your child watch a scary or violent movie hours before they go to bed. These often cause nightmares as well. Your child may have a severe emotional problem that you don’t know about, these nightmares may indicate that.
Night Terrors
During the first few hours of sleep in the deep non- REM sleep is when night terrors usually occur. Most often they occur at the same time every night. If your child wakes up screaming, crying or moaning they may be having a night terror. They may also sit straight up and scream, and although their eyes may be open they are still asleep. Unlike night mares, there will be no memory of this night terror or what happened during the night. Night terrors can last from 10 minutes to over an hour. Their heart rate will increase and they experience rapid breathing.
If your child is having a night terror do not try to wake them or comfort them. The best thing you can do is make sure they are safe and no harm is being done while they are having this night terror. There are several things that can contribute to night terrors including staying up extremely late, being overly tired, eating a heavy meal before bed time and some medications may also contribute to night terrors. Night mares and night terrors may seem very scary to the child and parent but they are not harmful and they are not a sign of any sort of mental illness. Children outgrow these sleeping disorders within a few months or years.
