Many people or their partner complained about loud snoring and sudden awakeness due to irregular breathing patterns. Some wake up feeling as tired as before they went to bed the night before. In many cases, people do not realise that they have sleep apnea.
For milder cases, it causes daytime fatigue, affecting your daily competency in work and personal life. In some severe cases, it can result in sudden death due to irregular breathing patterns and heartbeats.
What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that only occur during sleep and when a person’s breathing is interrupted. During sleep, one’s breathing is repeatedly stops and starts again. This causes disruption to the sleep and the partner beside them. Such ‘stop and start breathing’ disruptions may occur over several hundred times through a single night of sleep, and this means that our brain and the rest of our body are not getting sufficient oxygen and we do not achieve deep sleep state for our brain and body to rest completely.
Main types of Sleep Apnea:
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
It is the more common form of sleep apnea that usually occurs when the muscles at the back of our throats relax. These muscles support the triangular piece of tissue hanging from the soft palate, our tonsils at the side of the throat and our tongue.
is the more common form of sleep apnea that usually occurs when the muscles at the back of our throats relax. These muscles support the
As these muscles relax, our airways will narrow and closes when we breathe in. When that happens, we do not take in sufficient air, the oxygen level in our blood decreases. Our brain will sense the breathing deficiency, and we will be woken up from sleep so that we can consciously reopen our airways. This process happens so frequently and briefly that we will not remember.
Risk factors for Obstructive Sleep Apnea:Central Sleep Apnea
It usually happens when our brain does not send proper signals to the muscles that are controlling our breathing cycles.This is a less common form of sleep apnea. As your muscles are not in control, you may experience shortness of breath for brief moments and you are unable to achieve a good quality of sleep due to that.
Risk factors for Central Sleep Apnea:
What are the symptoms of sleep apnea?
How does it affect our daily lives?
Sleep apnea very often not only affects the person who has it, but also greatly on the person sleeping next to you. When you stop breathing momentarily, the oxygen supply is restricted to your brain and heart, the increased heart rate and simulation will cause you to wake up and it continues for a few hundred times during a night of sleep.
When this continues over a long period, it not only affects your daily life, it also strains your brain and heart. It increases the chance of heart issues, stroke, frequent mood swings and accidents arise due to daytime fatigue and inability to stay awake and focused.
How do we resolve sleep apnea?
Self-help treatments
You may try these methods to ease your sleep apnea issues. It will be effective together with seeking professional help. Changing your daily routine lifestyle and be healthier will influence your sleep patterns and sleep apnea issues.
Professional treatments
In order to enhance and address to your sleep apnea issue effectively, and if the self-help treatments do not help much, you may be having moderate to severe sleep apnea issue. You need to seek professional help. A consultation visit to the doctor will allow you to explore options of breathing devices and surgeries to help your sleep apnea issues. The doctor will determine the severity of sleep apnea through a sleep test and recommend an appropriate treatment. The list of treatments and not limited to as follows:
Speak to us now for more information on oral appliances for sleep apnea.
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To serve you better, we are available by Appointment Only.
Please contact us to schedule for an appointment.