Sleep Apnia

Do you wake up tired after a long night’s sleep?  Do your friends and family accuse you of snoring like a buzz saw?  Do you fall asleep in the middle of conversations?  If so, you may be at risk for a disorder called sleep apnia.  The word “apnea” comes from Greek and means “without breath.  Persons with sleep apnia, a potentially dangerous disorder, repeatedly stop breathing during the night, sometimes up to a hundred times, often for duration of a minute or longer. With each sleep apnia event, the brain automatically arouses the body, briefly, in order to resume breathing, but the result of so many disruptive episodes is an extremely fragmented night’s sleep, which prevents the body from getting adequate rest.  Complications from sleep apnia and insufficient amount of oxygen reaching the brain can be serious and even potentially life threatening.

There are three different types of sleep apnia: obstructive sleep apnia, central sleep apnia and mixed sleep apnia .  Obstructive sleep apnia occurs when the throat muscles relax and create an obstruction in the airway.  Central sleep apnia is a failure of the brain to send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing.  Mixed sleep apnia is a condition where both obstructive sleep apnia and central apnea occur in the same person.  Of the three types of sleep apnia, obstructive sleep apnia is the most common.

A distinctive form of obstructive sleep apnia is known as thePickwickian syndrome, named after Mr. Pickwick in Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers.  Individuals with this type of sleep apnia are overweight, with folds of flesh around the throat and age-induced sagging neck muscles.  Those neck muscles relax during sleep.  The person inhales.  The windpipe collapses and blocks the air flow.  The fall in blood oxygen level causes the brain to awaken the person, just enough to tighten the upper airway muscles and reopen the windpipe.  Snorting results then snoring resumes, and the cycle repeats.

Sleep apnia is most frequently found in adults over the age of forty, occurring twice as often in men as in women.  Hormones could play a part in the gender difference, because sleep apnia is rare in premenopausal women.  Sleep apnia, however, can affect anyone, even children.  First described in 1965, sleep apnia is now thought to affect six to seven percent of the population, more than eighteen million Americans.  Of those 18 million, only 10 million are thought to have symptoms and only 0.6 million have been diagnosed. 

It is unfortunate, due to a lack of awareness by the public and by healthcare professionals, that so many cases of sleep apnia are undiagnosed.  Undiagnosed sleep apnia can have significant consequences, such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency and headaches.  In addition, untreated sleep apnia, because of daytime drowsiness, may be responsible for job impairment and automobile accidents. 

Fortunately, sleep apnia is diagnosable and treatable.  Several treatment options exist and research is ongoing to discover and develop additional treatment options.

© 2007: www.mysleepapneacures.com:sleep apnia