Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea – What’s the Difference?
Written by admin on February 27, 2010 – 11:07 am -He gasps, he snorts, and he is grappling for breath! He likely has sleep apnea. (This can happen with women as well.)
You’ve probably heard these telltale signs.
It’s also scary. If you’ve ever lain beside someone with sleep apnea and literally watched that person stop breathing – it is scary!
Snoring
The actual loud snoring sound is created as the soft palette and the uvula vibrate. The uvula is the little fleshy bit of skin that hangs down at the back of your throat. From physics, we know that any rapidly moving air will try to elevate and vibrate the objects in its path; hence, voluminous airflow passing through the nose or mouth causes this loud, intense vibration. It’s the irregularity of the air movement when it’s not consistently even, that causes the sporadic vibration of the soft pallet. The National Sleep Foundation research suggests that about 44 women snore and this snoring affects their bed partners. When someone snores loudly and constantly every night, it is considered chronic snoring. Other times, snoring only occurs on an occasional basis and can be due to excessive tiredness, overeating, sleeping on one’s back, excessive alcohol consumption etc.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea, on the other hand, is where the sufferer’s breathing actually stops for a brief period of time – anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute. The initial culprits that trigger the onset of sleep apnea are weight gain, aging, and lose of muscle tone, though this can also occur in younger people without the typical triggers. In a home setting, sleep apnea is often misdiagnosed, as very often, it is accompanied by loud snoring, though snoring does not need to occur for the person to be having apnea events. When the throat muscles relax during sleep, the windpipe collapses. This then prevents the oxygen from flowing. As the blood oxygen level decreases, the brain finally kicks in and say, ‘Hey! It’s time to give me oxygen’, so it wakes you up just enough for you to tighten up the upper airway muscles and open your windpipe. This results in a huge intake of air and causes snorting and gasping, literally for breath. This pattern can repeat hundreds of time through the night and the sufferer is never the wiser. This is why it is so important to monitor your daytime behavior and how you feel. My husband suffers from very mild apnea events and he can always tell when he’s had a ‘bad’ night as his throat tends to be sore the next day, and he is very tired and groggy upon waking. If left unchecked or untreated, it can lead to intense irritability and depression, as well as morning headaches, loss of sex drive and a decline in cognitive functioning. There can also be an increased risk of high blood pressure, irregular heartbeats, and an elevated risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Millions of people have their sleep interrupted with this disturbing medical condition…and millions go undiagnosed. This extremely common sleep disorder is one that definitely needs medical attention. It is diagnosed by spending a night or two in a sleep lab hooked up to Polysomnography equipment that monitors your heartbeat, breathing and brainwave activity.
Once sleep apnea is diagnosed, the common solution is to sleep with a CPAP mask (continuous positive airway pressure) over your nose and mouth. It provides regulated flow of air through the nasal passages, which prevents your windpipe from closing. For milder cases of sleep apnea, learning to sleep on one’s side often will correct the situation. Extreme solutions involve surgery to correct structural deformities. All solutions must be discussed with your medical practitioner.
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Tags: apnea, Difference, obstructive, sleep, snoring, What's
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How can I treat my sleep apnea without a C-pap?
Written by admin on February 21, 2010 – 2:18 pm -I am not overweight. Surgery is not an option (if you have researched it, you’d know why). I have feverishly tried using my C-pap on and off for the past 5 years and always have to eventually stop using it because I’m not getting any sleep. People say “if you wanted it enough, you’d get used to it”. Not true. If I ever do fall asleep on it, I wake up gasping every minute (even with a chin strap). What can I do? I have nothing going on in my life right now because the chronic fatigue prevents me from holding a job or going to school. I’m so dysfunctional, everything seems pretty pointless and it seems like I have reached the end of any advice. People just repeat themselves. I’ve run out of solutions.
I’ve tried provigil. It made me crazy and irritable to the point of not being able to function productively.
..I’ve also tried all of the masks they have to offer. The “nose pillow” is the best for me out of them all but still doesn’t seems to work. I have had the pressure adjusted many times. Maybe they just screwed it up the last time. I’ll have too look into that. Thanks.
Nicole: Haha.. that seems the only option I have left!
Tags: apnea, cpap, sleep, treat, without
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Is Sleep Apnea Ruining Your Life?
Written by admin on February 17, 2010 – 9:07 pm -While sleep apnea might not sound like a very serious problem it can have very serious effects on your life. Experts agree that in order to function properly, most adults need around seven or eight hours of sleep each night and most of this should be uninterrupted to allow the brain to get into its deep sleep rhythms. If you have sleep apnea, however you’re probably being awakened many times during the night and thus unable to get into a deep sleep.
People with this condition often wake up unrefreshed even though they’ve been in bed for eight hours. Sometimes they might wake up with a headache, sore throat or dry mouth. If you’re not getting the necessary sleep at night or not feeling good when you wake up then chances are you are not performing your best at work and may even be falling asleep at your desk, or worse yet while driving.
Sleep apnea can affect your personal life too. If you’re not getting enough sleep, your probably cranky and not too much fun to be around. Of course, this can have adverse effects on any relationship and also diminishes your enjoyment of life.
So if you have sleep apnea, you’d see why it would be important to get to your doctor in order to have the appropriate diagnosis, wouldn’t you? Then why are so many people suffering with this when there are treatments available? The simple reason is that over 90% of the people with it don’t even know that they have it!
Sleep apnea can be a very subtle problem and because it is happening while you’re asleep, you might not even remember them waking up in the middle of the night. Therefore, you probably want to be aware of some other symptoms that might indicate the need for a trip to the doctor. Here are some things to look out for:
1. Loud snoring (many people that don’t have sleep apnea snore however this may be an indication).
2. Choking or gasping for air during the night.
3. A waking suddenly.
4. Waking up in the morning and feeling like you didn’t get enough sleep.
5. Waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat.
6. Being sleepy during the day for no good reason.
7. Waking up with a dry mouth, headache or sore throat.
Sleep apnea can be caused by a few things, the most common type called obstructive sleep apnea is caused by an obstruction that blocks your breathing. This can be either that you have large adenoids or tonsils, you have a smaller than normal airway due to the shape of your neck, your soft palate is getting in the way of your breathing or your tongue and throat muscles relax too much when you are sleeping.
The two other types are central sleep apnea which is very rare and is the cause of a central nervous system disorder caused by a brain infection, brain tumor, stroke or injury and mixed sleep apnea which is a combination of the other two.
In addition to wreaking havoc on your relationships and your enjoyment of life, sleep apnea can have some pretty serious health problems as well. When you stop breathing during the night not only does it cause sleep deprivation, it also causes oxygen deprivation. These can in turn affect her life in the following ways:
1. Daytime tiredness
2. Emotional imbalance
3. Poor mental function
4. Compromised immune system
5. Low energy
6. Slow reaction time
7. Heart abnormalities
8. High blood pressure and stroke
9. Memory problems
10. Weight gain
11. Sexual dysfunction
12. Depression
13. More apt to falsely driving, thus causing a car accident
If you do have sleep apnea, however, don’t despair! There are quite a few treatments available and you should be able to find something that suit you. Some of the treatments involve lifestyle changes such as losing weight, sleeping on your side and not smoking. Some make use of medications and devices that help open airways. And if nothing else helps, there are some surgeries that can help the problem.
Get the latest on sleep apnea by visiting http://www.sleepapneaanswers.com – a website that offers information on sleep apnea symptoms, causes and treatments.
Tags: apnea, Life", Ruining, sleep
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How does severe chronic sleep apnea affect arterial blood gas levels?
Written by admin on February 12, 2010 – 7:19 pm -Tags: apnea, arterial, blood, Chronic, levels, Severe, sleep
Posted in chronic sleep apnea | 6 Comments »
