Sleep Apnea Symptoms

Sleep apnea, “apnea”, from the Greek “without breath”, is a disorder that causes a person to frequently stop breathing during sleep.  The episodes occur as often as a hundred times a night, and can last up to a minute each.  Over 10 million Americans experience sleep apnea symptoms, but only 0.6 million have actually been diagnosed.  Undiagnosed cases are attributed to a lack of awareness within the general and health populations.  Plus, sleep apnea symptoms arise from feeling tired, which is a common occurrence and may not be recognized as a symptom to investigate. 

There are three classifications of sleep apnea symptoms: obstructive, central and mixed.  Obstructive is the most common, and involves the relaxation of the throat muscles to the point of obstructing the airway.  Sleep apnea symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, loud snoring, abrupt awakenings accompanied by shortness of breath, morning headache, difficulty staying asleep, awakening with dry mouth or sore throat.

Sleep apnea symptoms aren’t unusual, and sometimes the symptoms for obstructive and central sleep apnea overlap, making a definitive diagnoses difficult.  The severity and frequency of sleep apnea symptoms are important to note.  Daytime sleepiness is one of the sleep apnea symptoms that could easily be considered working too hard, bad week, etc, but are the frequency and consistency excessive?  Do you fall asleep without warning?  Do you fall asleep at inappropriate times?  Do you feel drowsy for days, even weeks in a row? 

Loud snoring is one of the most common sleep apnea symptoms.  Loud snoring, especially snorting, could be worth investigating.  With obstructive sleep apnea, sleep apnea symptoms result from the throat muscles relaxing so far as to collapse the windpipe upon inhaling.  When the brain triggers the muscles to tighten to breathe again, the arousal is accompanied by a snort.

Observed episodes of breathing cessation during sleep are the less easily noticed sleep apnea symptoms.  This means that someone else actually witnessed the sleeper stop breathing.  Abrupt awakening with shortness of breath after these episodes is more often a central sleep apnea symptom, than of obstructive, which means the brain isn’t sending proper signals to the breathing muscles.

Difficulty staying asleep is one of the sleep apnea symptoms directly related to the frequent awaken signals issued by the brain.  When the blood oxygen level drops, the body responds, arousing the sleeper long enough to resume breathing.  The sleep pattern, therefore, is frequently interrupted resulting in restlessness.

Morning headache, along with dry mouth and sore throat are sleep apnea symptoms resulting from lack of oxygen to the brain, and the frequent gasps for air when breathing is resumed.  In addition, mental impairment from restlessness and interrupted sleep can result in memory lapses, problems concentrating, personality changes and even depression. 

Sleep apnea symptoms, left untreated, can lead to potentially dangerous and life threatening consequences, such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease.  Fortunately, sleep apnea symptoms, though common and sometimes vague can be diagnosed and treated.  Several treatments exist and research to develop additional options is ongoing.

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