What is Sleep Apnea and How to deal with it?
Sleep apnea is a disorder that pauses the breathing process when you are deep asleep. During this situation, the nervous system and the human brain try to protect your body by hindering your sleep and waking you up, so that you can start breathing again.
This leads to several breaks in sleeping routines and can impact a person’s health. Let’s learn the details about what sleep apnea is in this article and how you can deal with this situation.
What is Sleep Apnea?
The term "Sleep Apnea" comes from its Greek origin, meaning breathless. If you suffer from sleep apnea, attaining long, continuous sleep can be challenging. This situation restricts your body's ability to breathe correctly and wakes the sleeping body.
During sleep apnea, your brain triggers your body and wakes you from deep sleep to allow your body to breathe again. There are several causes of sleep apnea, but the major one is airway blockage or the brain's inability to respond to the breathing mechanism in your body.
When there is insufficient oxygen in the body, it can lead to suffocation. That is when your nervous system and reflex mechanism kick in and push you to start breathing again! Sometimes, this situation can take severe turns and stress out your heart, worsening the scenario. However, several remedies will help you tackle the problem quickly.
What are the Different Types of Sleep Apnea?
There are three major types of sleep apnea, as mentioned below:
- Obstructive sleep apnea: In this type of sleep apnea, your throat muscles get relaxed during sleep and automatically block the airway, preventing any kind of breathing through your lungs. This is very commonly noticed condition among the patients.
- Central sleep apnea: This type of sleep apnea takes place when your brain stops responding to the muscles that are responsible for breathing procedures.
- Treatment-emergent central sleep apnea: This is the third type of sleep apnea. It is a bit complex. If you are diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and start taking therapies, sometimes it gets converted to central sleep apnea. In thissituation, maintaining right kind of overall health should be a top priority.
What are the Major Symptoms of Severe Sleep Apnea?
If you are facing any of the following symptoms of sleep apnea, then you should contact the doctor and get professional help for treatment of sleep apnea. The symptoms are:
- Choking or gasping while asleep
- Long and loud snoring practices
- Sleepiness during the daytime and a constant feeling of fatigue throughout the day.
- Soreness in mouth and throat
- Frequent tendency to use bathrooms during night sleep
- Insomnia or sudden awakenings during sleep
- Headache in morning
What are some of the Effective treatments for Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea can lead to lots of fatigue and tiresome days through restless nights. Thankfully, there are several effective therapies.
- Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) Therapy: Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) is the most common approach to sleep apnea treatment. Such therapy for severe sleep apnea consists of covering a mask over the nose and mouth during sleep. The mask is hooked up to a machine that will provide a steady flow of air, maintaining the airway and preventing any stops in the airflow.
- Bi-level Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) Therapy: Similar to CPAP, this second type of therapy also involves wearing a mask that is attached to a machine. Similarly, BiPAP not only changes pressure levels but also increases pressure during inhalations and decreases pressure during exhalations. It will be easier for some people with some health problems, in particular.
- Oral Appliances: These are personalised upper airways that assist in keeping the throat unobstructed during sleep. They are fabricated to push the jaw away and prevent fine tissues or the tongue from blocking the airway. Oral appliances would be very good for patients with mild or moderate sleep apnea or who are not able to use CPAP therapy.
- Lifestyle Changes: Through lifestyle changes, some interventions can be taken to reduce the worsening of severe sleep apnea. This covers getting rid of excess fat, stopping smoking, refraining from drinking alcohol or using sedatives before going to sleep, and sleeping on your side rather than your back.
- Surgery: In some instances, surgery must be used to treat sleep apnea. There are surgical options that involve the removal of excess tissue from the throat, the repositioning or fixing of the jaw, or the implantation of devices to keep the airway open.
- Positional Therapy: For a few people, sleep apnea is related only to sleeping on their back. Positional treatment is focused on methods that can be achieved with special devices or techniques that encourage sleeping on the side and can prevent airway obstruction.
The most appropriate therapy to be recommended for a certain person should be determined by a healthcare provider who gives it according to th individual's condition and the severity of the sleep apnea. When an appropriate regimen is followed, the symptoms of sleep apnea may be greatly reduced.
