What Everyone Should Know About Sleep Apnea
Symptoms are the body’s way of alerting us of a potential problem. Sleep apnea is difficult for people to detect. If you have an ear infection, the most common symptom is a fire-like sensation in the ear. If you have the flu, stomach upset, vomiting, fever and muscle aches are common symptoms. The same is true for sleep apnea, the main difference being these symptoms occur mainly when we are asleep and therefore harder to detect. Of the more noticeable sleep apnea symptoms is not feeling rested after an 8-hour nights’ sleep.
Sleep depravation holds its own set of symptoms. Confusion, grogginess, inability to concentrate, malaise and fighting hard to get up and start the day are common feelings when the body doesn’t get its required rest.
The word apnea, Greek in origin, means breathe. When a person suffers from sleep apnea, there is a blockage in the airway disrupting normal breathing patterns. Throat and pharyngeal muscle weaknesses and the fact these muscles are more relaxed during sleeping hours, are thought to be potential culprits.
Listen to Me Sleep
Being asleep, you can’t hear yourself snore or the pattern of apneic breathing, but anyone close to you can. In the first stages of sleep, your body isn’t relaxed enough to be in that deep REM state. Once you reach REM sleep, if you have sleep apnea, the breathing pattern begins to sound choked and muffled, stopping completely for brief periods and followed by deep inhalation as if to catch your breath. This is very alarming to the listener, and very dangerous for yourself. When you stop breathing for these short stents, you are essentially depriving your brain and heart the oxygen required to function normally.
If you are a current heart or neuro patient, these are definitely symptoms you would want to get under control in an effort to further exacerbate other chronic illnesses. In addition to the above-mentioned potentially severe side effects, you also aren’t allowing your body to rest completely. Imagine how exhausted you would feel if your alarm clock went off every 7 minutes from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. You certainly wouldn’t have the refreshed, ready to conquer the world feeling.
Time to Take Action
If you think you have sleep apnea, or your spouse has mentioned your sleep pattern anomaly, the best thing to do is research. Find out all you can about your potential diagnosis. There are several treatment options available for sleep apnea and they mainly depend on what is actually causing the blockage. The key is finding the source of the problem to appropriately treat it. After you have a basic understanding of sleep apnea you can begin addressing the issue. Many physicians will urge weight loss if you have a body mass index (BMI) above 25. This also a complete line of internal and external preparations; from nasal strips to nasal sprays, and mouth guards to muscle strengthening exercises.
Your physician may prescribe a breathing aid. Patient’s traditionally were very reluctant to try these as they were quite noisy and it is seemingly uncomfortable to sleep with an oxygen mask covering your nose and mouth. In recent years though, they have made great progress with CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines and they are much small, quieter and less intrusive. And last but not least, surgical intervention may be required in severe cases. If you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, whatever method of treatment you go with, remember the best defense is a great offense.
