Normally, when we sleep, air moves through the throat and in and out of the lungs at regular intervals of time. However, in a person with Obstructive sleep apnea, the movement of air can be stopped or diminished at any point during the night.
How does Obstructive Sleep Apnea Occur?
Our throat is surrounded by muscles, designed to control the airways when we speak, swallow or breathe. These muscles are less active during sleep that causes our throat to become narrow. In most of the people, this act of narrowing of throat doesn’t affect breathing; however, this may lead to snoring for some people. A completely blocked airway is Obstructive sleep apnea and a partial obstruction with diminished airflow is hypopnea.
Inadequate breathing due to apnea or hypopnea may cause our oxygen levels to fall down. As our airways are blocked (during sleep), breathing harder or faster may not help when it comes to improving the oxygen levels. Typically, to reopen the airway, the person needs to awake to activate their upper airway muscles and catch up on breathing. As the person awakes, he or she may have to snort, snore or take a deep breath or sometimes, they may have to face a sensation of gasping, choking or smothering.
If the person falls back to sleep quickly after this session he or she will not remember it. Many people with sleep apnea are unaware of their abnormal breathing habit and underestimate how often their sleep is interrupted. Usually these people end up with less sleep, fatigue and daytime sleepiness.
Obstructive sleep apnea can also be caused due to small upper airway, development of the bones of face and skull, genetic reasons, Obesity and tonsil enlargement especially in children.
Sleep apnea Symptoms
As we have already discussed, some of the common sleep apnea symptoms are loud snoring, daytime sleepiness and fatigue. However, if a person sleeps alone, he or she may not know about their snoring habit. In the same way, fatigue and sleepiness could also be the cause of overwork and increasing age. As a result, a person with OSA may not recognize they have this problem.
Other Sleep apnea symptoms are:
Risk factors associated with Sleep Apnea
Complications with Sleep apnea
As a consequence of day time sleepiness and low concentrating power, people with sleep apnea have increased risk of accidents and errors in daily activities. Researches even confirmed that people with OSA are twice as likely to meet a motor vehicle accident as people without it. In addition to that people with OSA have increased risk of cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attack and stroke.
Blood Pressure and Sleep Apnea
If you have sleep apnea, your chances to have high blood pressure are two to three times greater. This is because, sudden drops in oxygen levels due to sleep apnea increases the flow of blood pressure and put strain on the heart. Studies reveal that Blood pressure and Sleep apnea are closely linked to each other and results shows that OSA could even result in increased risk of irregular heart rate, heart failures and other heart related diseases.
High Blood Pressure Treatment
People with sleep apnea (and high blood pressure) will notice a fall in their blood pressure with right Sleep apnea treatment. Even studies have shown that patients (who have sleep apnea and high blood pressure both) taking three to four drugs for High blood pressure treatment have improved their diastolic blood pressures and night time blood pressures slower than those who used CPAP devices for 12 weeks.
Therefore, patients with resistant high blood pressure should undergo sleep study test to rule out Obstructive Sleep apnea.
Excuses for not Treating OSA
One common misconception we all have regarding our health is that a lack of symptoms means an absence of disease. This is especially true with sleep apnea. Often dubbed as the silent killer, sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea can deteriorate your health from a seemingly harmless snoring to graver conditions like diabetes and heart attack.
Sleep Apnea - A risk factor for Sudden Cardiac death
According to a major study, Sleep Apnea plays a major role in the aggravation of cardiac problems, and can lead to sudden cardiac deaths too. Obstructive sleep apnea is caused due to complete or partial obstacles in the air passage. The most common symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea are loud snoring, falling short of breath in sleep, feeling drowsy in the morning, high blood pressure, morning headaches and experiencing mood swings.
How sleep studies are conducted in Sleep labs?
If you are not sleeping well, or find yourself continually tired during the day, your attempt to correct the condition, by taking a pill or heaving your mattress might not necessarily help.
