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This information is brought to you by the fine folks at Health
Issues Today. The information here is meant as a stepping stone to more
in-depth diagnosis and treatment. Health
Issues Today strongly recommends you contact your doctor or other health
care provider if you suspect you may have sleep apnea. This is a very serious
disorder and the sooner caught and treated the better. Sleep apnea isn't anything
to fool around with, get professional help!
Sleep apnea is a disorder experienced by many people in our community. Some estimates put the figure as high as 10%. The symptoms of sleep apnea include loud snoring, waking up often during the night, being excessively tired, being irritable, and experiencing depression during the day. The word apnea means without rest.
One of the characteristics of people with sleep apnea is that while they are sleeping they will have periods when they stop breathing, sometimes for as long as a minute. The result of this is that the blood oxygen level falls, and the subconscious mind, which is monitoring the blood oxygen level, alerts the body and so it wakes up. Some people with sleep apnea may wake up several hundred times a night, without ever realising it.
The most common type of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea, usually referred to as OSA. It happens because the throat closes completely during sleep. This happens because the suction forces that come from snoring cause the persons tongue and soft palate, to be sucked into the airway and block it. When the person wakes up, the muscles in the throat and tongue contract and the person starts to breathe again.
Another type of sleep apnea is central apnea. This happens when the brain and the nervous system are not co-ordinated in telling the body when to breathe.
Mixed apnea includes elements of both obstructive and central apnea.
About the Author
Author Tony Mcglinn runs www.sleepabc.com and www.mypowerfulmind.com. You are free to copy and use this article if it is unchanged and includes this paragraph.
Written by: Tony McGlinn
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