Obstructive sleep apnea can be a very serious sleep disorder, which is why it’s so important to know the risk factors and causes so that you can properly identify and treat this condition early on. During sleep people are supposedly having the most restorative and restful time of day. For people with obstructive sleep apnea this is not true at all. Their apneic events happen hundreds of times a night when their breath pauses and causes them to wake. Not all people are aware of the number of reasons that obstructive sleep apnea occurs which make it hard for people with this sleep disorder to seek medical help. To get the correct treatment you need to know the risk factors and causes of obstructive sleep apnea.

Causes of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

There are many causes of obstructive sleep apnea. One cause is problems within the airway. These problems are causes by certain problems in the airway. These problems include the upper and lower jaw, tonsils, soft palate, tongue, and throat muscles. Some cases of sleep apnea cases involved over- relaxed throat muscles and tongue. Usually when people sleep their muscles naturally relax, but when they have sleep apnea their throat and tongue muscles relax more than normal. This results in the narrowing of the airway and can cause apneic events. Enlarged and collapsed soft palate and tonsils also contribute to the cause of obstructive sleep apnea.

Some structural abnormalities may also cause people to experience obstructive sleep apnea. Anatomical abnormalities such as the bone structure and shape of head and neck may also affect the size of a person’s airway. If you have a bigger neck you may have a narrower airway. If you have an enlarged tongue or tonsils, this may also have an affect on your airway. People are also more prone to obstructive sleep apnea if they have structural abnormalities in the jaw, nose, and mouth. These abnormalities often appear in people with craniofacial syndromes which makes them more prone to this sleeping disorder. Nearly 50% of those with downs syndrome experience obstructive sleep apnea because of their large tongue, narrower nasopharynx and decreased muscle tone.

Risk Factors

Obesity may also contribute to obstructive sleep apnea. When people are over weight their fatty cells tend to gather and clog in the throat tissue making the airway narrow, which makes it harder to breath over all. They may also have added obstruction due to the pressure on the airway.

With all disorders there are risk factors involved. Obstructive sleep apnea is found more commonly in men, although women are predisposed after menopause. Studies show that once a woman has hit menopause they are more likely to have this sleep disorder.

Children and adolescents may have obstructive sleep apnea, although it is more commonly found in people over the age of 65. Those of older age are twice as likely to experience it.

The use of any drug including alcohol, sedatives, and cigarettes also contribute to obstructive sleep apnea. When you drink your muscles become more relaxed, but smoking on the other hand is proven to cause inflammation in the upper airway, making smokers twice as likely to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea.

If you have family members who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea you are at a higher risk to develop this sleep disorder because it is hereditary. Snoring is also an indicator of obstructive sleep apnea, some say that chronic snoring causes apneic events. When you snore your soft palate stretches because of the vibrations, this may cause your soft palate to not only stretch but also collapse. Snoring does not automatically mean that you have obstructive sleep apnea, although if you think you do, you should talk to your health care professional as soon as possible so that you can begin treatment and start sleeping well again.

There are varying degrees of severity of sleep apnea, so you need to know what you’re dealing with if you have been diagnosed with this condition. You should also know that obstructive sleep apnea is one of the more severe stages of this condition and it actually involves the stopping of breathing due to an obstruction in the airway. It is this type of sleep apnea that can cause the most problems and even result in death in some cases. If you are suffering from this type of sleep apnea, then it’s likely that you are wondering what your treatment options are and if you will have to live with this condition for the rest of your life.

You should know that many people who have this type of obstructive sleep apnea manage with it just fine. One of the more common forms of treatment for this condition is a machine with a face mask that monitors your breathing. If the user stops breathing during their sleep for any amount of time, the machine can sense this and sounds an alarm that will cause the wearer to awaken and change positions. These machines usually have a feature where they offer a more pure form of oxygen to make sure that the body has enough oxygen in their blood and usually, these machines will feed moist air to the wearer, so as to reduce potential irritation to the airways that is often caused from breathing too much dry air.

This is one of the most common treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, although lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, cutting back on how much alcohol a person drinks before going to bed and losing weight are often recommended and used in conjunction to this form of treatment. Over time, depending on the patient’s desire to cure this condition, lifestyle changes and use of the machine are enough to ease and prevent obstructive sleep apnea, but it’s important to make sure that you are no longer suffering with it before you choose to stop any treatment.

Others who suffer with this condition have found that surgery to correct the problem is the most effective and preferable solution for them. Often, when a person undergoes a surgery to cure obstructive sleep apnea, they will find that many of their problems are cured at least temporarily. There are many different surgical options which you can discuss with your healthcare provider, but it’s important to remember that in this case, surgery is not always a permanent form of treatment for this condition. However, many people have found that they have good results with this type of treatment and would do it again if they were given the option.

There are many different ways to treat obstructive sleep apnea today. In recent years, physicians have to come to better understand the varying types of sleep apnea in general, therefore, they have better ways to treat it. If you are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, this means something is directly interfering with your breathing passages. For unknown reasons, tissue will fall and block the actual airway. This can be tissue from the throat, nose or mouth. This condition can be very dangerous. When something like tissue falls blocking your airway at night and disrupting your breathing, you are not getting the proper amount of oxygen you need while sleeping. The patient will typically be advised to not sleep on their back, but their sides. This will keep the obstructive tissues from falling. If the tissue is not in the way, you can breathe normally. Enlarged tonsils can also cause blockage of the airway. If you lie on your back, you will find your tonsils cause the pressing obstruction.

Can Obstructive Sleep Apnea Become Worse?

There are several key issues which can cause obstructive sleep apnea to escalate and become worse. Alcohol is one factor. If you consume regularly, muscles used to keep the passageway open become relaxed. This will allow tissue to fall into the passageway. Obstructive sleep apnea can be escalated by certain medicines also. These include, but are not limited to, antidepressants, allergy medicine, anxiety pills and most sedatives. Someone who is overweight is also more susceptible to sleep apnea because there is an increase in the amount of tissue which can fall and obstruct you airway.

Unless your obstructive sleep apnea is so severe as to threaten the life of the sufferer, a doctor will choose the least intrusive method of treatment. One option sounds simple enough. There are dental pieces available which act to raise the jaw, forcing your airway open at night. There also happen to be devices which physically keep people from rolling over on their back at night while sleeping. These can range from a harness type of apparatus to specially made pajama tops which will prevent you from rolling over. The pajama tops have something in the back material to physically make lying on your back impossible.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Surgery

As with most afflictions, if it is too severe obstructive sleep apnea surgery might be unavoidable. Tissue removal will cure obstructive sleep apnea. If surgery isn’t necessary, there are sleeping masks which force the air way open. This also forces air to keep the obstructive tissue at bay. You wear this at night while you sleep. This at home air treatment is sure to provide relief from obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome not only affects adults but it also affects children. It is the most common form of sleep apnea and it is important to understand the causes and symptoms. Most people understand it has something to do with a person’s breathing while sleeping. They also know one of the symptoms can be excessive snoring.

Blocked Airways

Apnea means cessation of breath and in the case of a sleep apnea condition, the patient’s breath will start to turn shallow and it can even cease temporarily during their sleeping hours. In fact, such temporary cessations of breathing can occur as many as hundred times in a single night. When these episodes occur repeatedly the condition is then known as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and when an episode occurs the diaphragm as well as chest muscles will need to push and puff in order to reopen the blocked airways.

When all this pushing and puffing goes on it can and will disturb the patient’s sleep and the body organs will also not get sufficient oxygen and the heart rhythm will also become irregular. It is therefore necessary to first understand what obstructive sleep apnea syndrome symptoms are as only then can you determine well in time whether you have this problem or not.

Common Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

• Sleepiness  or fatigued during the day
• Experiencing sore throat or dry mouth when you wake up in the morning
• Headaches in the morning and your intellectual capabilities will be impaired
• Experience night sweats
• A sexual dysfunction problem

In the case of children suffering from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome the symptoms are not so obvious and include bedwetting, breathing through the mouth during the daytime, having difficulties in swallowing and sweating excessively at night.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute estimate that as many over twelve million people suffer from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Of this number, over fifty percent of sufferers are overweight and one person out of twenty-five will be middle aged and one in fifty middle-aged females will suffer from this condition.

Obstructive sleep apnea surgery is often the last treatment option and is only recommended when all other options have been exhausted and success in treating the condition still eludes the doctors. There are several different surgery choices including uvulopapalatopharyngoplasty and tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy.

If you feel you may be suffering from sleep apnea or you think your partner or child is, it would be wise to consult your doctor. Potential problems can arise if left untreated.

For people who have tried many different cures and treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, surgery may be their last resort. Sleep apnea is a condition that affects millions of people, forcing them to wake up in the middle of night, sometimes hundreds of times, to take a breath. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition resulting in the soft tissue on the roof of the mouth and throat becoming relaxed as the person sleeps and blocking their airway. One of the primary indications of this problem is extremely loud snoring after undergoing sleep apnea surgery the snoring should subside.

When a person sleeps, their muscles and tissues are relaxed. When the airway becomes blocked they are unable to breath and despite waking up in order to inhale, many are not even aware they have been woke up. While sleep apnea surgery is a last-ditch effort by many doctors to restore a person’s sleep habits, it is usually done so as a last resort.

There are different procedures and products claiming to eliminate the need for sleep apnea surgery, and some of the products are being sold as a way of reducing snoring to allow other household members to sleep in peace. Unfortunately, for the person suffering from obstructive sleep apnea these products may be masking a relatively dangerous health problem.

Proper Diagnosis Requires Sleep Test

While many people believe the passing a sleep test should be a breeze, those who believe they are suffering sleep apnea will need to spend the night in a sleep lab to monitor their sleeping pattern to properly diagnosis their condition. If diagnosed with sleep apnea and many other treatments fail to help them, sleep apnea surgery may be required to reduce the amount of tissue inside the mouth and throat.

Doctors, while generally limiting sleep apnea surgery to only the most severe cases, can remove some of the loose tissue in the back of the throat to prevent it from loudly rattling while sleeping. Some newer procedures involving creating scar tissue that will tighten the loose tissue in the throat are also being used in place of sleep apnea surgery.

Due to the dangers of any type of surgery, especially the discomfort associated with sleep apnea surgery, doctors will try a variety of methods to reduce snoring and to limit the loss of breathing during the night. Continuous air pressure masks are one of the most common treatments for sleep apnea, but when they fail to help sleep apnea surgery may be required.

The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. To date, researchers and healthcare professionals have not come to a single conclusion about the exact cause. The soft palate is the most affected region of obstruction for individuals having obstructive sleep apnea. It occurs as a result of muscle relaxation to a certain degree when the air passage gets fully collapsed and turns out to be obstructed.

The Cycle of Sleeping Disruption

Since the air passage collapsed, breathing ceases and the individual wakes up as a result of an obstructed air passage. This waking up lasts for few seconds and then the individual sleeps again. This persistent disruption averts the individual from reaching the deep sleep level, that is, Rapid Eye Movement (REM) level sleep, which our body desperately needs in order to become rejuvenated and to fight off different adverse psychological and physical health conditions.

Potential Risk Factors

Needless to say, obesity and being overweight, take many tolls on people’s lives. Obstructive sleep apnea is no exception and the most essential cause is being overweight or obese. It occurs because excessive buildup of fat on both sides of the air passage makes it narrow, especially when the muscles release. Another important risk factor of obstructive sleep apnea is age. It is mainly due to the fact that aging contributes to a decrease of muscle mass.

Signs, Symptoms and Complications

The major signs and symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea stem from disturbance in the normal sleep pattern. The recurrent arousal and inability to reach deep sleep, may lead to daytime sleepiness, irritation, anxiety, changes in personality and behavior, memory impairment, depression and many other problems. It also contributes to drowsy drive syndrome, which results in an increasing risk of automobile accidents. Lack of oxygen supply puts serious threat over the cardiovascular system and increases the risk of congestive heart failure and stroke.

Available Treatment Methods

There is a wide variety of treatment methods available to treat obstructive sleep apnea. The first includes weight reduction. It can be followed by positive pressure therapy, positional therapy, surgical interventions and using oral appliances. The positive pressure therapy has three components, namely, continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), bi-level positive airway pressure (BPAP) and auto titration. Positional therapy is based on the assumption that specific positioning may free the patient from snoring or shortness of breath.