A good night’s sleep helps you feel refreshed and rejuvenated. Not only does sleep relax your mind and body, but it gives the cells in the body an opportunity to expel waste products and repair any damage. It is this revitalization process which makes sleep so invaluable to our overall health.

Unfortunately, millions of people do not get enough sleep. There are many reasons for this problem such as poor time management or improper sleeping environments. But some people do not feel rested even when they do allocate enough time for sleeping. These individuals may be suffering from a sleep disorder called sleep apnea.

Though snoring is not uncommon during sleep, loud or frequent snoring can be a sign of sleep apnea. But this disorder carries serious consequences more than just noisy sounds or minor tiredness. If left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, or many other adverse health conditions. So if you suspect that you or your loved ones may be suffering from sleep apnea, you should contact your physician as soon as possible.

About Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a condition where you actually stop breathing while you are asleep. These pauses in breathing can last anywhere from several seconds to half a minute – and they can occur dozens or even hundreds of times during the night. Often, breathing only resumes after you make a loud choking sound.

As a result, sleep apnea can rob you of a good night’s sleep. You may wake up frequently during the night, which causes a disruption in your sleep patterns. These interruptions may prevent you from getting the continuous sleep you need in order to rejuvenate your body.

Though sleep apnea is common, it can be difficult to identify because many of the symptoms occur while you are asleep. Even if your sleeping partner hears you snoring, he or she may just assume that it is normal.

People who are overweight and above 40 years of age are more prone to having congested airways, high blood pressure, heart disease, and enlarged tonsils. All these conditions put someone at a higher risk of developing sleep apnea.

The disorder is more common in men than in women because men have narrower air passages than women. However, women are more likely to develop sleep apnea during pregnancy (due to the weight gain that is common during the gestational period) and after menopause (because this bodily change usually occurs at an advanced age). Although the reason is unknown, sleep apnea is more common in African-Americans, Hispanics, and Pacific Islanders than in Caucasians.

It is very important to know the difference between common snoring and sleep apnea. Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, and people who have sleep apnea do not necessarily snore. So how can you distinguish ordinary snoring from serious sleep apnea?

The biggest determinant is how you feel when you wake up in the morning. Simple snoring does not interfere with sleeping as much as sleep apnea does. If you are suffering from sleep apnea, you will likely feel tired and unrested even if you remained in bed for a sufficient length of time. It may help to keep a record of your sleeping patterns to see how many hours you stay in bed each night and how you feel each morning.

Another approach is to record yourself while you sleep. You can set up either a microphone and audio recorder or a camera and video recorder near your bed. The next day, you can observe how loudly and frequently you snore, whether you awakened during the night, and how many times you choked or gasped for breath while you slept.

There are three different kinds of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, and complex sleep apnea. Each type of sleep apnea may be caused by different factors.

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common type of the sleep disorder, affecting nine out of ten sleep apnea sufferers. It is caused by blockages in the trachea, which is the organ that allows air to move in and out of the body. These blockages prevent a person from getting enough oxygen while breathing during sleep. The airway may be blocked by relaxed throat muscles, excess tissues in the throat, the tonsils, the tongue, or the uvula - the small piece of flesh that hangs at the back of the throat that can sometimes elongate and vibrate, which causes snoring.

Central sleep apnea is caused by abnormal functioning of the central nervous system, which occurs when the breathing muscle does not receive the proper signals from the brain. Either the brain does not send the right signal or the signal is interrupted before it reaches the breathing muscle. Central sleep apnea is usually found in people with tumors or other severe problems in the brain stem, which controls a person’s breathing. Whenever the brain stem is compromised, the person will experience breathing problems while awake or asleep.

Complex sleep apnea is a combination of both obstructive and central sleep apnea. This condition is diagnosed when obstructive sleep apnea is treated with continuous positive airway pressure (see “Treatment”), which in turn reveals evidence of central sleep apnea.

Symptoms

Again, identifying sleep apnea yourself is not easy because the symptoms occur only when you are asleep. Usually, the initial symptoms are identified by your sleeping partner. You can tell your partner to watch for symptoms during your sleep such as loud or constant snoring, lengthy pauses in breathing, choking, gasping, or snorting.

But you may notice the effects of sleep apnea, such as

• Morning headaches

• A dry throat in the morning

• Daytime drowsiness

• Poor concentration

• Feelings of irritation or depression,

• Significant mood swings

• Morning restlessness

• Night awakenings

• Excessive sweating

• A lack of sexual desire

To diagnosis sleep apnea a patient visits a sleep center so his or her sleep patterns may be studied and bodily activity recorded. A sleep study specialist will monitor brain waves, eye and chin movement, heart rate and rhythm, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood, and leg movement.

If the patient is found to have sleep apnea there are several treatment options available. The goals of treating the disorder include restoring normal breathing, reducing snoring, and avoiding the complications which may arise from sleep apnea. The three most common ways to treat sleep apnea are lifestyle changes, breathing devices, and surgery.

Lifestyle Changes

Making some changes in your lifestyle and daily activities may reduce the incidence of sleep apnea. Cutting your consumption of alcohol, especially before bedtime, will help because alcohol relaxes the muscles in the throat, causing them to constrict the airway and inhibit your breathing while you sleep. Quitting smoking is also a good idea because smoking increases the inflammation and fluid retention in your throat, which serves to block the upper parts of the airway. Finally, since being overweight increases the risk of sleep apnea, you should strive to maintain a healthy diet and engage in some sort of physical activity each day in order to keep your weight down.

In addition, you should try to avoid sleeping on your back. Doing so causes your tongue and soft tissue to rest on the back of your throat, which leads to obstructed breathing. Instead, make an effort to sleep on your side or your stomach in order to keep your throat open. You can also use over-the-counter nasal spray or a nasal dilator to expand your airway, which also helps keep your throat open.

Breathing Devices

There are quite a few breathing devices on the market that relieve your snoring and also treat or help prevent sleep apnea. Ask your doctor about which device might be right for you. Here are some of the most commonly-used breathing devices.

• Mouthpiece: A mouthpiece is made from a plastic mold that is fit to your individual mouth. This device aids in keeping your airway open by pushing your lower jaw and tongue forward. Because mouthpieces are designed to prevent snoring, they can eliminate the effects of mild sleep apnea.

• Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP): This device is usually used to treat moderate to severe apnea. A CPAP machine delivers air pressure through a mask placed over your nose when you sleep. The air pressure delivered by the machine is greater than the surrounding air pressure, which helps keep your upper airway passage open.

• Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP): If a CPAP device is insufficient, you may benefit from a BPAP machine. This device automatically adjusts the air pressure while you are asleep to provide increased pressure during inhalation and decreased pressure during exhalation.

Surgery

Some people might require surgery to open up their air passages. The most frequently-used surgical procedures for sleep apnea involve either shrinking or stiffening any excess tissue found in the throat. A series of small shots on an outpatient basis may be prescribed in order to shrink excess tissue. To stiffen the throat tissue, your doctor may open a slit in the tissue and insert a small piece of stiff plastic.

A relatively new procedure called an uvulopalatopharyngoplasty can provide relief from sleep apnea for patients who do not see results with a CPAP device. In an uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, the doctor removes the tonsils, adenoids, and tissue from the back of the mouth and the top of the throat. The idea is to clear as many obstacles away from the airway as possible. In severe cases, a surgeon may choose to reconstruct the lower jaw to enlarge the upper airway.

If left untreated, sleep apnea can become dangerous to your general health and well-being. Due to a sudden drop in blood oxygen from repeated pauses in breathing, sleep apnea can lead to high blood pressure. This in turn puts an additional strain on your heart, which increases the risk of cardiovascular disease or stroke. If you already suffer from heart disease, these reduced oxygen levels during sleep can result in sudden death from cardiac arrest. Sleep apnea can also lead to congestive heart failure (when the heart cannot pump enough blood to the rest of the body), as well as peripheral artery disease or other vascular diseases.

If sleep apnea causes you to awaken continuously during the night, you may suffer from daytime drowsiness, fatigue, and irritability. This can lead to poor work performance, strained family relationships, or even a serious motor vehicle accident.

Also, sleep apnea may cause problems if you are placed under general anesthesia for major surgery or other medical reasons. That is because lying on your back or being sedated can cause breathing problems in sleep apnea sufferers. As a result, post-surgical complications (such as heart attack, pneumonia, or pulmonary embolism) are more common in people who have sleep apnea.

Outlook

People who have gone a night or two without proper sleep can recall the resulting tiredness, listlessness, and fatigue. Now imagine how dozens of consecutive nights of insufficient sleep can impact your work, mood, and relationships. This is how potentially damaging sleep apnea can be.

However, the earlier that sleep apnea is diagnosed and the sooner that medical treatment is sought, the quicker that your quality of life will improve. Because when you receive the right amount of uninterrupted sleep (which is about eight hours a night according to doctors), it can have a substantial impact on all facets of your health, attitude, and well-being.