Sleep Apnea Introduction - What Is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea disorder is a constant medical condition where the affected person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep.
These episodes last 10 seconds or more and cause oxygen levels in the blood to drop.
It can be caused by obstruction of the upper airway, resulting in obstructive sleep apnea or OSA, or by a failure of the brain to initiate a breath, called central sleep apnea.
It can cause and worsen other medical conditions, including hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes.
It is a sleep disorder that causes breathing to stop during sleep for anywhere from ten seconds up to several minutes.
These pauses in breathing, called apnea and can occur hundreds of times a night and are more likely to occur in certain positions, particularly when sleeping on the back.
If apnea is severe enough, the sleeper wakes up gasping for breath and may never get more than five minutes of uninterrupted sleep all night.
It is more prevalent in older individuals, men, and overweight people.
When it occurs, the cessation in breathing causes a drop in blood oxygen levels, forcing the heart to labor harder to keep the blood oxygenated.
The brain sends strong signals to the body to make an all-out effort to start breathing again.
The chest muscles heave and the lungs work hard to draw in air, usually accompanied by gasps and loud snorts.
The sleeper rouses just enough to shift position.
While normal people might experience four or five of these breathing-related arousal during the night, people with this disorder have dozens, even hundreds, of apnea episodes every night.
"Apnea is an unrecognized killer, but it is hiding in plain sight.
Every night more than 50 million Americans stop breathing.
In a stunning evolutionary failure, nature endowed us with throats that tend to collapse during sleep and stop airflow but did not endow our sleeping brains with the ability to start breathing again calmly.
At this breathless moment, the immediate future holds only two possibilities: death or to wake up for breathing.
In the worst cases, no air enters the lungs for 40, 50, 60 seconds, or longer.
The diaphragm muscles struggle harder and harder against the blocked throat, without success.
Carbon dioxide builds up in the bloodstream and the level of life-giving oxygen falls precipitously.
After a minute or more the brain is panicking, suffocating, screaming out for oxygen.
The skin and lips turn blue.
Just when death seems imminent, the sleeper suddenly struggles awake and the tongue and throat muscles tighten, allowing oxygen to flood into the lungs in a series of gasping, snorting breaths.
Oxygen is restored to the blood, and the fatal course is reversed.
Instead of being alarmed and staying awake, the victim is immediately asleep again.
After a few seconds, snoring begins-and the cycle starts again, repeating hundreds and hundreds a time a night.
" Following are some common symptoms: Extremely loud choking during sleep, loud pauses in breathing, daytime sleepiness no matter how much time you spend lying on bed, waking up with dry mouth, morning headaches, restlessness, insomnia, going to bathroom frequently during, forgetfulness, difficulty in concentrating, irritability, difficulty performing work duties, anxiety, emotional problems, difficulty in learning new tasks, sexual dysfunction.
Following are three types of apnea: 1.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA 2.
Central Sleep Apnea.
3.
Mixed Sleep Apnea.
1.
It is the most common type of sleep apnea.
It occurs when the soft tissue in the back of your throat relaxes during sleep, causing a blockage of the airway (as well as loud snoring).
2.
It is a much less common type of sleep apnea that involves the central nervous system, rather than an airway obstruction.
It occurs when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing.
People with central sleep apnea seldom snore.
3.
It is a combination of OSA and CSA.
These episodes last 10 seconds or more and cause oxygen levels in the blood to drop.
It can be caused by obstruction of the upper airway, resulting in obstructive sleep apnea or OSA, or by a failure of the brain to initiate a breath, called central sleep apnea.
It can cause and worsen other medical conditions, including hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes.
It is a sleep disorder that causes breathing to stop during sleep for anywhere from ten seconds up to several minutes.
These pauses in breathing, called apnea and can occur hundreds of times a night and are more likely to occur in certain positions, particularly when sleeping on the back.
If apnea is severe enough, the sleeper wakes up gasping for breath and may never get more than five minutes of uninterrupted sleep all night.
It is more prevalent in older individuals, men, and overweight people.
When it occurs, the cessation in breathing causes a drop in blood oxygen levels, forcing the heart to labor harder to keep the blood oxygenated.
The brain sends strong signals to the body to make an all-out effort to start breathing again.
The chest muscles heave and the lungs work hard to draw in air, usually accompanied by gasps and loud snorts.
The sleeper rouses just enough to shift position.
While normal people might experience four or five of these breathing-related arousal during the night, people with this disorder have dozens, even hundreds, of apnea episodes every night.
"Apnea is an unrecognized killer, but it is hiding in plain sight.
Every night more than 50 million Americans stop breathing.
In a stunning evolutionary failure, nature endowed us with throats that tend to collapse during sleep and stop airflow but did not endow our sleeping brains with the ability to start breathing again calmly.
At this breathless moment, the immediate future holds only two possibilities: death or to wake up for breathing.
In the worst cases, no air enters the lungs for 40, 50, 60 seconds, or longer.
The diaphragm muscles struggle harder and harder against the blocked throat, without success.
Carbon dioxide builds up in the bloodstream and the level of life-giving oxygen falls precipitously.
After a minute or more the brain is panicking, suffocating, screaming out for oxygen.
The skin and lips turn blue.
Just when death seems imminent, the sleeper suddenly struggles awake and the tongue and throat muscles tighten, allowing oxygen to flood into the lungs in a series of gasping, snorting breaths.
Oxygen is restored to the blood, and the fatal course is reversed.
Instead of being alarmed and staying awake, the victim is immediately asleep again.
After a few seconds, snoring begins-and the cycle starts again, repeating hundreds and hundreds a time a night.
" Following are some common symptoms: Extremely loud choking during sleep, loud pauses in breathing, daytime sleepiness no matter how much time you spend lying on bed, waking up with dry mouth, morning headaches, restlessness, insomnia, going to bathroom frequently during, forgetfulness, difficulty in concentrating, irritability, difficulty performing work duties, anxiety, emotional problems, difficulty in learning new tasks, sexual dysfunction.
Following are three types of apnea: 1.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea or OSA 2.
Central Sleep Apnea.
3.
Mixed Sleep Apnea.
1.
It is the most common type of sleep apnea.
It occurs when the soft tissue in the back of your throat relaxes during sleep, causing a blockage of the airway (as well as loud snoring).
2.
It is a much less common type of sleep apnea that involves the central nervous system, rather than an airway obstruction.
It occurs when the brain fails to signal the muscles that control breathing.
People with central sleep apnea seldom snore.
3.
It is a combination of OSA and CSA.
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