What is Sleep Apnea?
Unless our bed partner is disrupting our sleep, most of us don’t think of snoring as something to be overly concerned about. Yet frequent, loud snoring may be a sign of sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is defined as a reduction or cessation of breathing during sleep. Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while you sleep.
Breathing pauses can last from a couple of seconds to minutes. They may occur 30 times or higher an hour. Typically, standard breathing then starts yet again, sometimes with a deafening snort or choking audio.
Sleep apnea usually is a chronic (ongoing) condition in which disrupts your sleep. Once your breathing pauses or will become shallow, you’ll often transfer of deep sleep in addition to into light sleep.
As a result, the quality of your sleep is poor, which makes you tired during the day. Sleep apnea is a top cause of excessive daytime sleepiness.
Types of Sleep apnea
There are three (3) common type of sleep apnea,
- Central sleep apnea (CSA)
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)
- Mixed sleep apnea
- Central sleep apnea (CSA) occurs when as their pharmicudical counterpart does not send the signal for the muscles to take a breath and there isn’t a muscular effort to take a breath.
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) occurs if the brain sends the signal for the muscles and the muscles seek to take a breath, however they are unsuccessful because the actual airway becomes obstructed and prevents a satisfactory flow of air.
- Mixed sleep apnea, occurs when there is both central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea.
Signs and symptoms of sleep apnea
The most common signs of obstructive sleep apnea are loud and long-term (ongoing) snoring. Pauses may occur from the snoring. Choking or gasping might follow the pauses.
The snoring usually is loudest when you sleep on your back; it might be much less noisy when you turn on your side. You might not snore each night. Over time, however, the snoring sometimes happens more often and get louder.
You’re asleep when the snoring or gasping happens. You likely won’t know that you’re having problems breathing or have the capacity to judge how severe the catch is. A family member or bed partner often can notice these problems before you.
Another common sign of sleep apnea is fighting sleepiness during the day, at work, or while driving. You may find yourself rapidly falling asleep over the quiet moments of your day when you’re not effective. Even if you don’t have daytime sleepiness, talk with your doctor if you have problems breathing during sleep and please do note that not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, so its better you contact your doctor and don’t judge into conclusion.
Others signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:
- Morning headaches
- Lack of concentration
- Feeling irritable, frustrated or having personality changes
- Waking up frequently to urinate
- Dry mouth or sore throat after you wake up
