Sleep Apnea is a serious sleeping disorder, happens when the person’s breathing is repeatedly interrupted during sleep. Apnea means breathing pause for at least ten seconds. Reason for this disorder is when the throat is unable to keep the airway open. The main types of Sleep Apnea are Obstructive, central and complex sleep apnea
Factors involved
There are a numbers of factors that increase the risk of this disorder i.e. being overweight, large neck size, smoking and use of alcohol. Sometimes it can be genetic also. Muscular change, physical obstruction are the other factors involve in this disorder.
Symptoms
The strongest symptom is loud Snoring. Sleep apnea patients can suffer from sleeplessness too. Other symptoms like depression, lack in concentration, irritability and memory difficulty etc. There may be the case when you stop breathing during sleep and awakening with a dry mouth or with morning headache If this disorder is not treated then it may occur high blood pressure, cardiac arrhythmia, stroke and heart attack. If someone sees any of the symptoms, treatment can mitigate or ease the problem and related complications
Symptoms
Change in lifestyle is important to mitigate the symptoms of Sleep Apnea like Losing weight, Avoid Alcohol or quit smoking. But other tests can be done to diagnose the problem. Doctors can evaluate based on the symptoms and sleep history. The diagnosis involves overnight monitoring and Home Sleep testing is also another option. Other tests to detect Sleep Apnea are-,
If the reports are abnormal, doctors may prescribe therapies. For the cases of Obstructive sleep apnea, the doctor might refer to ENT doctor to evaluate blockage in the nose or throat. Cardiologist or neurologist may look into the case when Central Sleep Apnea.
Treatment
Lifestyle changes are most necessary to normalise the breathing pattern and the very first crucial step in the treatment.
Around 1 in 5 adults have mild symptoms of OSA. Leaving this untreated may cause other complication like heart attack and depression. While sleep apnea is more likely to occur in the age of 50 and above buy it may affect people of all ages.