May 03, 2010

Sleep Apnea And Snoring

Do you ever feel tired after a full night of sleep or sometimes suddenly wake up in the middle of the night? You maybe suffering from a very serious sleeping condition called sleep apnea. Basically when you are having an episode you actually stop breathing. There is two known types of this disorder, central and obstructive which is the more common one. It feels like you are strangling and stopping breathing several times per night.

In most cases the person will start breathing again on their own, usually the apnea lasts for a few seconds to a few minutes. Some people wake up to a certain extent, but most people do not even realize that they woke up. The end result of all this is a night of sleep with not enough rest.

There is a danger to all this. Imagine someone coming to your bedroom and strangling you throughout the night, it is hard on your heart, your lungs and your body. As a result during the day you are very tired and a lot of times very irritable.

They are two main treatments one involves the use of a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine. This is basically like a vacuum cleaner which works in reverse, instead of sucking air in it pushes air out. It is hooked onto the patients nose whilst they are sleeping and it helps to keep the airway open while they are sleeping. That is a very effective treatment option.

Surgery is actually another alternative that works for people with mild to moderate sleep apnea. For children the most common reason they have this condition in the first place is because they have enlarged tonsils. So removing tonsils in children is a very effective treatment for them.

2 comments:

Mack Jones, MD said...

Sleep apnea is a much bigger problem than most people realize. Even the medical community remains uninformed to a large extent (excluding some of the sleep specialists). If you knew what I know, you will have a sleep test and if positive, use your PAP machine faithfully for the rest of your life. Read 'Deadly Sleep: Is Your Sleep Killing You?" and you won't ever take sleep apnea lightly again.

Sandi said...

@ Mack Jones, MD : Thank you for your information.

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