Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that can be fatal. People with sleep apnea will have no problem falling asleep, but once asleep their throat muscles over- relax and they collapse on the airway. This sends a signal to the brain telling it that breathing has temporarily been cut off. Once they have stopped breathing the person wakes up and begins breathing normal again.
How can snoring be so bad for you?
This non breathing cycle can happen many times a night. An episode can occur up to 50 times a night and last from ten seconds or longer. People are usually unaware that anything is happening to them and they do not understand why they are so tired during the day.
Obstructive sleep apnea, known as OSA, is the most common from of this sleep disorder. Some people that suffer from obstructive sleep apnea may often suffer from cental sleep apnea. If they develop cental sleep apnea they have a sleep disorder known as mixed sleep apnea. Most believe that obstructive sleep apnea affects 18 – 20% of adults in the United States. This disorder only becomes life threatening and very rarely fatal if left untreated. Obstructive sleep apnea may lead to heart disease, stroke, pulmonary hypertension and systemic hypertension.
Are there any treatments?
There are many cures for sleep apnea, surgical and noninvasive. One of the treatments is positive airway pressure. Positive airway pressure also known as PAP, is a noninvasive form of treatment for people suffering from moderate to severe sleep apnea. During this treatment a machine sends a constant flow of air through a mask that is worn while sleeping. A sleep study must be held to determine the force of the air flow. The three types of positive airway pressure therapy are, CPAP, BiPAP, and Auto PAP.
You may also go to a dentist to seek help with this sleep disorder. The two general categories that help with this sleep disorder are mandibular or lower jaw, advancing devices or tongue retaining devices. The most popular device to help with this disorder is the mandibular device. They attach this device to the upper jaw and pull the lower jaw and base of the tongue forward. This shift of your mouth keeps the airway open during the night.
For most people medications do not help with their sleep apnea, although many of them take antidepressants and mondafinal. In conjunction with a PAP machine supplemental oxygen is often used. Just the use of oxygen does not prevent the collapse of the airway or sleep fragmentation. Oxygen can prevent the loss of blood oxygen that occurs when the airway collapses.
You should also know that there are some surgical treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, but you shouldn’t jump to this treatment if you can help it. While these surgical treatments may be the correct option for some people who severely suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, there are times when you might not need to opt for this treatment option.
With the correct forms of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea most people find that their life greatly improves along with their ability to get a good night of sleep after they under go treatment.
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.
