What is Sleep Apnea

Have you ever asked, “What is sleep apnea?”  You should.  Healthcare professionals started asking “What is sleep apnea?” decades ago, and defined the disorder in 1965.  Sleep apnea, at first considered rare, is a potentially dangerous disorder that now affects nearly 18 million men, women and children in the United States.  

Sleep apnea, “apnea” Greek for “without breath”, is a sleeping disorder where a person repeatedly stops breathing while sleeping, sometimes for as long as a minute, and often a hundred times a night.  The quality of sleep is severely diminished, not only from the frequent disruptions, but also from the lack of oxygen to the brain.  For that reason alone, everyone should be asking “What is sleep apnea?”

Untreated sleep apnea can result in potentially life threatening consequences.  Complications can arise from the lack of oxygen to the brain.  Untreated sleep apnea can also cause hypertension, cardiovascular disease, memory problems, impotency, weight gain and headaches.  Have you experienced any of these conditions?  Do you snore obnoxiously loudly?  Do you often feel drowsy during the day?  Have you been worried about being too tired to drive?  Are you more forgetful than usual?  Then you should ask your healthcare professional, “What is sleep apnea?”. 

Perhaps lack of sleep, of not feeling rested seems too simple.  Why should you ask, “What is sleep apnea?” just because you didn’t get a good night’s sleep?  That’s an excellent question.  Sleep apnea is common, as common as diabetes, affecting over  six percent of the American population.  Unlike diabetes, however, sleep apnea is largely undiagnosed.  Of those 18 million persons affected, only 10 million are considered to have symptoms and only 0.6 million have been diagnosed. 

Why are so many cases of sleep apnea undiagnosed?  Unfortunately, there’s a lack of awareness among the general population and among the healthcare industry.  We’re a nation of sleep-deprived persons.  We work long hours.  We don’t get enough sleep.  Drowsiness is an everyday occurrence.  Why worry about just being tired?  There’s more to it than not feeling rested when you wake up.  Consider the benefits of asking “What is sleep apnea?”.  Sleep apnea is thought to be responsible for impairment on the job, and a cause of automobile accidents.  Learning about this disorder could not only improve your own health, but also increase job production and decrease car wrecks.

Okay, you decide to ask “What is sleep apnea?”.  What will you hear?  You’ll hear that there are three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central and mixed.  Obstructive is the most common, and mainly affects people over forty, men twice as often as women.  Don’t be fooled by the age, though, sleep apnea can affect everyone, even children. 

Will you hear something positive when you ask “What is sleep apnea?”?  Absolutely.  You’ll hear that sleep apnea is diagnosable and treatable, that several treatments exist and research continues to discover additional options.  For your own health, and for those of your loved ones, ask “What is sleep apnea?”.  You won’t regret it.

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