What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is a strange condition whereby the sufferer actually stops breathing during the night. Now this may sound startling and pretty scary but it is actually quite common. It can occur in anybody, both young and old and with varying degrees of severity.
The word apnea comes from the Greek word that means 'without breath'. When dealing with this ailment you need to distinguish which of the three forms you have.
Obstructive apnea
By far the most common occurrence is called 'obstructive' apnea. What happens is that during the night or when the sufferer is asleep, the air cannot enter or escape from the nose and mouth. This results in a sensation of choking which wakes the person up continuously. These episodes can often repeat as much as 50 times per hour. A person with obstructive apnea fails to get a good night's rest because of these interruptions and as a result is effected by sleep deprivation, among other things.
Central apnea
Central apnea is much less common than its brother and happens when the brain fails to send the correct message to the muscles telling them to breathe.
Mixed apnea
As you can imagine from its name, mixed apnea is a combination of obstructive and central apnea.
All three forms of this condition can effect anyone, be them young or old, male or female and from any racial background. Practically no one is safe. Having said that though, there are circumstances which have negative or positive effects on the possibility of getting sleep apnea. Men seem to be more prone than women and men over forty in particular. Apart from gender and age, being overweight is an important factor and new research now suggests there could be a genetic link also.
A person with this disorder can wake up in the morning with a severe headache and be prone to drowsiness throughout the day. They find concentration difficult and have even been known to fall asleep in the middle of actions such as talking, walking or dangerously enough, driving. They can develop high blood pressure and become more susceptible to strokes and heart attacks.
Now this all sounds very alarming and you would have thought someone might have told you something about it before, but these symptoms don't happen to everybody. For a lot of sufferers, the most they have to endure is snoring and waking up suddenly with a loud snorting noise. But if this persists it is a very wise choice to go and see a doctor who will send you to a specialist. Once there they will be able to perform various tests to decide on the best course of action.
Diagnosing isn't as simple as one would expect as there are many different reasons for sleep disorders. There are several tests available though, the two main ones being polysomnography and the multiple sleep latency test.
The polysomnography test makes a record of all the many different bodily functions when we are sleeping like brain activity, eye movements, muscles and oxygen levels in the blood. This is a very good way of finding out if you have sleep apnea and also how bad.
The multiple latency sleep test is a way of measuring how quickly a patient falls asleep. People who fall asleep in less than five minutes will very likely need some treatment.
When a person is diagnosed with having sleep apnea the most common treatment consists of CPAP, or continuos positive airway pressure. This basically means having a mask worn over the nose when sleeping and pumping in air so the patient can breathe more easily. It is quite effective but a little inconvenient and can cause a variety of minor problems like sore throats or headaches. Surgery is also an option but only in severe cases and not without risks.
Helping ourselves is a good start when dealing with sleep apnea. Losing weight, giving up drinking and quitting cigarettes are the three most important things you can do to combat this little known but quite unsavory ailment.
