Forgetting a Breath or Two While Sleeping

Have you heard of the man who forgot to breathe while sleeping? Doctors call it ‘sleep apnea’. Quite surprisingly, about 18 million Americans are affected by this strange disorder.

Those suffering from sleep apnea actually cease breathing for a short while during their sleep. Themedguru.com gives an insight into this weird but potentially life threatening disorder.

What is Sleep Apnea
It is a sleep disorder, which is characterized by cessation of breath during sleep. Each episode of the breathing break is called an apnea and can last from a few seconds to minutes. Typically, an apnea can occur between 5 and 30 times in an hour. Although normal breathing is resumed, but it is often accompanied by a loud snort or choking sound.

Sleep apnea is a chronic condition that disrupts sleep for about 3 nights in a week. When the breathing pauses, the person tends to move out of deep sleep into light sleep, which is often superficial. In other words, the person might appear to have slept for a full eight hours and yet wake up feeling tired and sleepy.

Types of Sleep Apnea
The most common kind of sleep apnea is the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. It is characterized by repetitive upper airway obstruction during sleep. It is normally related to a reduction in blood oxygen concentration. To put it in simpler terms, the airway gets obstructed at several possible places, either due to excess tissue in the airway, large tonsils or a large tongue.

Central sleep apnea is a less common type of sleep apnea. It happens when the area of your brain responsible for breathing fails to send the required signals to your breathing muscles. Due to which you make no attempt to breathe for short periods.

Diagnosis
This disorder often passes undiagnosed, primarily because the patient suffering from the ailment is asleep when the apnea occurs. Even doctors carrying out your routine check-up might not be able to detect the right reason for your fatigue and sleepiness throughout the day. It is often a family member or a bed partner who is the first one to see the symptoms of sleep apnea.
The related symptoms include:

• excessive daytime sleepiness
• frequent episodes of obstructed breathing during sleep
• morning headaches
• non refreshing sleep
• a dry mouth upon awakening
• high blood pressure
• overweight
• irritability
• change in personality
• depressiondefine
• difficulty concentrating
• rapid weight gain
• confusion upon awakening

How Fatal can the Disorder be?
This sleep disorder is capable of causing threat to the person’s life and therefore, makes immediate medical attention a necessity. Obstructive Sleep Apnea, which is the more dangerous kind, may eventually increase chances of heart attacks, strokes, impotence, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure and heart disease. The resulting day time sleepiness can lead to accidents lost productivity and problems with interpersonal relationship

Measuring an Apnea
Apneas can be measured by observing the patient during sleep over a period of two hours. One can obtain an estimate of the severity of apnea by dividing the number of apneas by the number of hours of sleep, giving an apnea index (AI). The greater the AI, the more fatal is the disorder. Sleep Apnea is progressive, which means that the condition tends to worsen with the advancement of age. It should therefore not be taken lightly.

Treatment
Sleep apnea can range from mild to moderate to severe, depending upon the gravity of the symptoms. Mild sleep apnea can be treated by bringing about certain behavioral changes such as losing weight and sleeping on your side. Certain mouth devices are also available in the market that assist the patient in keeping the airway open and reduce snoring. These devices cure the snoring in three ways –
1. bringing the jaw forward,
2. elevating the soft palate, or
3. Keeping the tongue from falling back in the airway and blocking breathing.

Facial deformities can also result into sleep apnea. They may have a smaller jaw or might have a smaller opening at the back of the throat. People with enlarged tonsils, a large tongue or some other tissues partially blocking the airway can also develop the condition. Fixing a deviated septum may assist the process of opening the nasal passages. Removing the tonsils can also be of great help.

Moderate to severe Sleep Apnea is usually treated with the help of an apparatus called C-PAP (continuous positive airway pressure). C-PAP keeps the airway open and unobstructed by blowing air into your nose via a nose mask. More severe cases of apnea are treated with the help of a Bi-level (Bi-PAP) machine. The difference between the Bi-level machine and the C-PAP is, while the former blows air at two different pressures, the later is not structured to do so.

Two different levels of pressures are needed due to the fact that the pressure of air needed while inhaling is higher than that required at the time of exhaling. Your doctor can determine the pressure required by you and a home health care company can set up an apparatus with the required pressure to suit your needs.