What is sleep apnea? The term is often associated with snoring, or excess weight, but does it encompass more than this? Sleep apnea affects a broader range of people than those who fit most physician's expectations for sleep disorders. This condition is alarming, and one of the primary reasons why many seek help from sleep disorder specialists. Those who suffer with this condition experience a decline in their quality of life that may severely affect their health.If left untreated the condition can lead to high blood pressure, increased stress, stroke, diabetes and even heart failure. Learning what sleep apnea is; the causes and the possibilities to reduce or remove the condition altogether, is the first step toward a solution.
In a nutshell, sleep apnea is a sleep disorder consisting of a ceasing or slowing of the normal process of breathing during sleep. Primary concentration of the condition resides among adults between the ages of 30 to 60. Sleep apnea can also be found in children. Sleep apnea is statistically the most common of the sleep disorders affecting millions of people around the world.
Sleep apnea occurs when your breathing is disrupted during sleep. It’s characterized by an interruption in the breathing process for periods of ten seconds or longer, which causes distress for the body. This interruption affects both inhalation and exhalation and can cause a disruption in your sleep pattern.
The official definition of sleep apnea is the temporary stoppage of breathing during sleep, often resulting in daytime sleepiness. Apnea is a Greek word that means "want of breath".
The most common form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea. In obstructive sleep apnea, the muscles of the soft palate around the base of the tongue and the uvula relax, obstructing the airway. The airway obstruction causes the level of oxygen in the blood to fall (hypoxia), increases the stress on the heart, elevates blood pressure, and prevents the patient from entering REM sleep, the restful and restorative stage of sleep. In other words, sleep apnea causes deprivation of quality sleep. These episodes can happen hundreds of times during the night, which can ultimately cause sleep problems and health problems for the patient.
The real danger of sleep apnea is the not the brief interruption in breathing but the lowering of oxygen in the blood. When the oxygen drops off in your system, it can cause you to leave the deep, restorative stage of sleep into a lighter state of sleep or even wake up completely. Since the deep cycles are key to getting the regenerative effects of sleep, your entire body becomes depleted the more these interruptions occur.
In order to diagnose sleep apnea, the patient may have to undergo a battery of diagnostic tests to determine if this sleep disorder is present. Once diagnosed, sleep apnea can be treated surgically or non-surgically depending on the severity and cause of the condition.
Sleep disorder diagnostic tests or sleep studies are commonly performed on a patient in a sleep laboratory where the patient sleeps overnight at the lab while being monitored. The severity of the apnea is calculated by a computational formula whereby the number of hours slept is divided by the number of episodes experienced during the course of the session. The resulting data determines the apnea index or AI which is determined by episodes per hour. The higher the AI number, the more severe the apnea. In critical cases, immediate medical intervention may be necessary to correct the condition.
If you believe that your sleep is being disrupted by apnea, or your sleep partner reports hearing you stop breathing during the night, call our office to arrange for your own sleep study.
