What is sleep apnea? Sleep apnea is a potentially life threatening sleeping disorder that can be very difficult to catch if you always sleep alone. Apnea, literally translated, means without breath. When you sleep and snore, you have the disorder when your breathing stops for ten or more seconds in between snores. Usually, the lapse in breathing is directly followed by an audible gasp for air, your body's way of getting the oxygen it so desperately needs. Sleep apnea causes a blood oxygen desaturation of three to four percent or more. While the percentage may not seem like much, it can have disastrous effects on your overall health.
A quick internet search of what is sleep apnea will bring back over 25,000 responses. Once you sift through all of the garbage sites, you'll find out that there are many symptoms of the sleeping disorder. The scary fact is that many of the symptoms, such as depression, irritability and changes in behavior can be attributed to a ton of other non sleep apnea related conditions. In most cases, these symptoms will be misconstrued and misdiagnosed as a mental condition. As a result, the treatments will only relieve the symptoms and leave the actual disorder untouched and not addressed. If left untreated, sleep apnea can cause major damage to the heart, culminating in a massive heart attack that can leave you lifeless.
If you think that you may have sleep apnea, I highly encourage you to do a Google search of "what is sleep apnea". The thousands of pages can give you much more information than I can in this brief article, and can end up saving your life. If, after doing some background research, you believe you suffer from sleep apnea, make an appointment and see your doctor as soon as possible.
Sleep Apnea And Diabetes
If you end up waking from sleep finding that you haven't been able to breathe for a short period of time, you are most likely affected by sleep apnea. Sleep apnea occurs when you can't take in air while sleeping because your throat stays open or your throat temporarily collapses making you become breathless.
Sleeping on Your Back
Most often, the sleep apnea cause can be attributed to sleeping on your back though in some instances too it may occur in whichever position you may be sleeping. However, the primary sleep apnea cause is when muscles of your tongue or throat relax beyond their normal range and while sleeping on your back, this over relaxation of the muscles makes your mouth open wide in an agape position which results in the tongue relaxing and then slipping up and towards the back of your mouth resulting finally in you becoming unable to breathe.
Therefore sleeping on your back is the main cause of sleep apnea and it may be as simple to remedy the problem by changing the position you sleep in to get that great nights sleep. If you still have your tonsils and adenoids and they become enlarged it may also contribute to sleep apnea. This can easily be helped by your doctor and may involve surgery.
If you are overweight and have too much body fat you may also be at risk for sleep apnea. Fat deposits can accumulate at the back of the throat and cause it to collapse or a blockage while you are sleeping.
For mild sleep apnea you can use a mouthpiece that will control your tongue and keep you breathing consistently for a better nights sleep.
Even the size of your skull or neck can be a cause of sleep apnea. The shape may force muscles to close over the throat when you lie down and ruin what would otherwise be a good sleep.
The best way to treat this and other sleep apnea causes is by using the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure treatment which is most suitable should you suffer from an extreme case of sleep apnea.
Both John Spencer & Rudy Watkins are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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