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Sleep Apnea At A Glance

  • Sleep apnea is defined as a reduction or cessation of breathing during sleep.
  • Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by the collapse of the airway during sleep.
  • The complications of obstructive sleep apnea include high blood pressure, strokes, heart disease, automobile accidents, and daytime sleepiness as well as difficulty concentrating, thinking and remembering.

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What Is Sleep Apnea?

Do you experience any of the following?

  • Loud snoring
  • Occasionally waking up with a choking or gasping sensation
  • Sleepiness or lack of energy during the day
  • Poor memory and attention span
  • irritability
  • Sleepiness while driving
  • Morning headaches
  • Restless sleep
  • Waking up with a very sore and/or dry throat
  • Forgetfulness, mood changes, and a decreased interest in sex
  • Recurrent awakenings or insomnia

 What Is Sleep Apnea?

Obstructive sleep Apnea (Ap-ne-ah) is a common disorder in which you have one or more pauses in breathing while you sleep.  Breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes and often occur 5 to 30 times or more an hour.  Typically, normal breathing then starts again, sometimes with a loud snort or choking sound.

 

Sleep apnea is usually a chronic condition that disrupts your sleep.  You often move out of deep, restful sleep and into light sleep when your breathing pauses or becomes shallow.  This results in poor quality sleep that makes you tired during the day.

 

People with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have disrupted sleep and low blood oxygen levels. When obstructive sleep apnea occurs, the tongue is sucked against the back of the throat. This blocks the upper airway and air flow stops. When the oxygen level in the brain becomes low enough, the sleeper partially awakens, the obstruction in the throat clears and the flow of air starts again, usually with a loud gasp.  Repeated cycles of decreased oxygenation lead to very serious cardiovascular problems. Additionally, these individuals suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness, depression, and loss of concentration.

 

What happens?

During the increasing muscular relaxation of deepening sleep, the airway can become increasingly flaccid. The soft palate, the uvula, the soft lining tissues of the throat, and the tongue  relax, fall back and collapse during your sleep,

The relaxing tongue falls back, sealing against the back of the throat during the sucking, negative pressure of the attempt to take a breath. Snoring is the vibration of the uvula, soft palate and throat walls against the tongue during the breathing, with reduced airflow due to increased resistance. As collapsibility increases, complete closure can occur.

 

In apnea events oxygen levels of the blood can drop precipitously triggering a response of the brain to prevent asphyxia. These severe drops in blood oxygen levels immediately causes alarm signals to be sent to your brain. Your body reacts by increasing heart rate, cardiac output, and blood pressure - desperately trying to get more deoxygenated blood to your lungs and more oxygenated blood out to your brain and body. Serious cardiovascular and respiratory responses occur during your sleep apnea, often with you unaware

 The sleep apnea patient may have these events occur up to 600 times or more per night resulting in fragmented, non-refreshing sleep as well as chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system. This activation is thought to be the reason for such devastating long-term negative effects on cardio-pulmonary health. Untreated for nine years, sleep apnea patients may lose 20-50% of lifespan.  Some of the most serious chronic diseases have been associated with snoring and sleep apnea, including: stroke, high blood pressure,  heart attack, arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), cardiac arrhythmias (irregular pulse), diabetes, gastro-esophageal reflux disorder (GERD)

The Greek word "apnea" means "without breath"and millions of people suffer from the effects of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.

Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children.  If you think that you or someone you know may have obstructive sleep apnea, please discuss the symptoms with Dr. Babin as soon as possible.