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Sleep apnea is a common yet serious condition that usually affects overweight populations. Sleep apneic patients develop difficulty breathing and snore loudly during sleep. Sleep apnea will lead to the hindrance of oxygen supply to the brain, which might result in severe consequences. You are just 10 minutes read away from having a good and healthy sleep by learning more about sleep apnea!
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which sleep quality is affected. Patients cannot acquire quality sleep as breathing is often interrupted due to multiple factors while asleep. Gaseous exchange cannot be successfully taken, leading to the depletion of oxygen and excessive accumulation of carbon dioxide in the brain. As a result, sleep apnea is detrimental to the mental, physical and social facets of one’s well-being. Sleep apnea can be obstructive or central.
Sleep apnea is usually caused by organic causes or other underlying conditions. Causes of central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea may not be necessarily related to each other. Common causes of sleep apnea include:
Causes of obstructive sleep apnea:
Causes of central sleep apnea:
The aforementioned causes directly lead to sleep apnea. On the other hand, there are several risk factors of sleep apnea that are associated with sleep apnea:
Sleep apnea can be easily noticed upon observations of its signs and symptoms even though they vary among patients. Typical signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:
Untreated sleep apnea may lead to the following complications:
Sleep apnea tests are carried out upon the observation of signs and symptoms, diagnosis can be made on the basis of the test results. In patients with history of stroke and/or irregular heartbeat, one should think about sleep apnea as one of the potential underlying causes. The following clinical procedures may also be taken.
Polysomnography: It is more known as a sleep study that monitors multiple things in your sleep, including electrical activity and physical activity. With a sleep study, impaired breathing can be confirmed and the severity of sleep apnea can be established. It can be done at home or at a sleep center. Sleep tests usually involve different procedures like:
Oximetry: It is a more convenient, yet less reliable test than polysomnography. A sensor is placed onto the fingertip or earlobe to measure the oxygen saturation at sleep, which finds out if enough oxygen is delivered to the body parts.
Sleep apnea can be treated with lifestyle modifications that relieve its symptoms and reduce the influences of the risk factors. This includes losing weight if overweight, avoiding alcohol, quitting tobacco or hypnotics, preventing allergens, and altering sleeping postures like avoiding sleeping on your back.
The following approaches may also be adopted to treat sleep apnea:
The commonly accepted definition for serious (severe) sleep apnea is defined by apnea-hypopnoea index (AHI). It means how many pauses in breathing occur per hour asleep. Serious (severe) sleep apnea refers to when the patients’ AHIs are higher than 30, while the AHIs values of moderate and mild sleep apnea are 15-30 and 5-15 respectively.
Yes. Even though overweight and obesity are risk factors of sleep apnea, skinny individuals may also suffer from sleep apnea. This may be due to their family history, concomitant conditions, age, etc. So skinny people should not neglect any signs and symptoms of sleep apnea, especially loud snoring.
Sometimes, the signs and symptoms of sleep apnea may be ignored. Noticing them may save your life! Common signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include loud snoring, insomnia, nightmares, lack of energy in the daytime, poor cognitive functioning and sexual dysfunction, etc. If you suspect that you have sleep apnea, do not procrastinate and visit your doctor as soon as possible!
This article was medically reviewed by Dr. Cheung Yu, Vincent 張宇醫生. Dr. Cheung is a specialist in family medicine practicing at HKSH Medical Group. He is currently an honorary clinical assistant professor in family medicine at HKU and clinical associate professor (Honorary) in family medicine at CUHK.
This article was independently written by Healthy Matters. It is informative only and not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be relied upon for specific medical advice.
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