Sleep apnea is not a common term, but it is very common among snorers. Sleep apnea is a disruption of breathing while asleep. It is a sleep disorder and up to 90% of people who have sleep apnea are unaware they have this disease. A person may have stopped breathing hundreds of times throughout the night, but can not remember that he or she must have trouble. We must identify the signs that lead to snoring and sleep apnea.
With obesity comes a series of problems, such as high cholesterol, diabetes and sleep apnea. There are various physical signs that can point to many of these conditions. A person may think they are aware of the existence of all symptoms indicating a health concern. He or she is often wrong; especially in the case of sleep apnea. In fact, unless a person happens to sleep with someone who will alert him of the opportunity to look into this sleep disorder, then a person with sleep apnea may not always notice the signs of this potentially fatal condition.
Sleep Apnea Information
Central sleep apnea occurs because your brain is not telling you to breathe properly. Various underlying diseases can be the cause.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the tissue at the back of your throat relaxes and blocks the airway during sleep. It is the most common type and mostly what we talk about. Most of us are familiar with the concept that hypertension is a silent killer, but we rarely hear that sleep disorders are also deadly. Indeed, obstructive sleep apnea is one of the least diagnosed cases of stroke and heart attack.
Snoring is a sign of upper airway obstruction taken to a critical level. During snoring the inability to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide upsets the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. The brain senses the low oxygen and increased carbon dioxide levels and sends a signal to resume breathing and cause arousal. The frequent arousals inhibit the normal sleep cycle and the results are the fragmentation of sleep. This makes patients feel very sleepy during the day and complain of a very unrefreshing sleep at night.
Sleep Apnea Statistics
There are an estimated more than 12 million Americans who have obstructive sleep apnea. Over half of these people are overweight, and most of them "snore heavily. Sleep apnea is more common in men, and is more common among African Americans, Hispanics, and Pacific Islanders than in Caucasians. It tends to run in families too.
Anyone can have sleep apnea. It is more common among men. Studies show that one in every 25 middle-aged men and one in every 50 middle-aged women have apnea. It can also be hereditary. Others who are at risk are people who snore loudly, who are obese, and those with high blood pressure and a narrow air passage. Apnea may be caused by stroke, brain infection or a chronic respiratory problem.
Although generally known as a condition that primarily affects adults, sleep apnea is also found in children. In the majority of child cases, sleep apnea has been reported between the ages of two and six. Only very rarely, infants and adolescents are diagnosed with the condition. The most common cause of childhood sleep apnea is large tonsils and adenoids that prevent the passage of the airflow to the lungs.
If left untreated or simply ignored, child sleep apnea can affect brain development, leading to the appearance of behavioral disorders and attention deficit. Mental development tests have been quite alarming when it comes to results of investigations carried out for small children. Any parent who suspects that their child suffers from a sleep disorder should turn to the health care provider immediately to obtain a correct diagnosis.
The first step in the diagnosis of sleep apnea is a doctor who will take a complete medical history and look at your neck, throat and mouth for all signs of tumors or abnormalities. If sleep apnea is suspected your doctor will refer you to a study of sleep and what is known as a polysomnogram (or PSG). This sleep apnea test records the brain waves, eye movements, breathing rate, muscle activity, heart rate, oxygen levels in the blood and the amount of air that is inhaled and exhaled during your sleep time.
Medicines are available to treat apnea, but you can also do things on your part to prevent the onset of apnea. They include reducing weight if you are overweight, stopping smoking, reducing alcohol consumption and avoiding drugs such as sleeping pills, tranquilizers or others that affect breathing.
Two of the most popular medications prescribed for sleep apnea are Trazodone and Hydroxizene. Hydroxizene is a steroid that is often prescribed for people with allergies or other conditions involving itching. It can help a person to sleep, but it is easy to build a tolerance to. As time passes, ithere will be more and more drugs needed to work effectively, so it is not a permanent solution. Trazodone works the same way, although Trazodone tends to be felt more in the morning and it is more difficult to get out of.
Trazodone has potentially unpleasant side effects such as very intense dreams that you can remember so vividly, dry mouth and irritability.
Some patients with sleep apnea may need surgery to remove excess tissue from the nose or throat (removal of tonsils and adenoids, nasal polyps or other growth) and correct a septum that is deviated. Although surgery is an excellent way to treat the symptoms of sleep apnea, its success rate is low. Therefore, surgery should be reserved for patients who have not responded to other therapeutic interventions. Usually, more than one surgical procedure is attempted to realize the benefits.
Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP) is the most common surgery to treat sleep apnea. It intends to enlarge the airway by removing all redundant tissues (tonsils, adenoids, uvula) of the pharynx. The overall success rate is 30 to 50 percent.
People with sleep apnea often wake up unrefreshed, even if they were in bed for eight hours. Sometimes, they might wake up with a headache, sore throat or dry mouth. If you do not get needed sleep or are not feeling well when you wake up then you are not performing at your best at work and may even be falling asleep on your desk, or worse still when driving.
Sleep apnea can affect your personal life too. If you do not get enough sleep, your mood is bad and you are probably not too fun to be around. Of course, this can have adverse effects on relationships and decreases you ability to enjoy life.