Sleeptech Limited - What is sleep apnoea?

What is Sleep Apnea?

Snoring and sleep apnea are common Sleep-disordered Breathing (SDB) problems that can affect your sleep, health and quality of life.

There are three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central, and mixed.

* Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

The most common type of sleep apnea. It occurs when your upper airway closes but your efforts to breathe continue. The primary causes of upper airway obstruction are lack of muscle tone during sleep, excess tissue in the upper airway, and anatomical abnormalities in the upper airway and jaw.

* Central Sleep Apnea (CSA)

This affects only 5-10% of the sleep apnea population. It occurs when your breathing stops but your airway is open. This cessation of breathing results from the body's failure to breathe automatically. It's as if a short circuit prevented the brain from keeping the respiratory system functioning properly.

* Mixed Sleep Apnea

A mixture of both OSA and CSA.

Snoring and sleep apnea often occur together, caused by changes in your upper airway while you sleep. Your airway may narrow, limiting airflow as you breathe; it may vibrate, commonly heard as snoring; or it may collapse, so you stop breathing.

This third type of change is called Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), and may last for ten seconds or more.

Your airway may even move through all three stages:

Healthy upper airway

Obstructed upper airway

When tissues obstruct the upper airway completely, they prevent breathing. They actually work to suffocate the sleeper. The sleeper wakes up enough to regain control of the upper airway, breathe again, and then fall back to sleep. This happens from dozens to hundreds of times per night for people with OSA, but they usually don't remember waking up.

Partially obstructed upper airway

Each obstruction deprives the body of oxygen and forces it to retain carbon dioxide that it would normally exhale. As a result, the body's blood gases get out of balance, and the body is subjected to a 'toxic' environment. When the body sets off 'alarms' that it needs more oxygen, the brain wakes the sleeper, breathing resumes, and the individual falls back to sleep until the next obstruction occurs.

These obstructions increase heart rate, raise blood pressure, and eventually blunt the body's automatic response system, resulting in increasingly more severe apneas and hypopneas.

The brief wake-ups that people with OSA experience also diminish their quality of sleep, resulting in sleep deprivation.

The common symptoms of sleep deprivation may be what bring most people with OSA to see their physician, these may include:

* Excessive daytime sleepiness

* Poor concentration

* Poor memory

* Depression

* Lack of sex drive

Causes and risk factors of sleep apnea include :

Obesity (the heavier a person gets, the greater the risk of OSA)

Snoring

Family history of OSA or snoring

Small upper airway (large tongue, large uvula, recessed chin, excess tissue in the throat and/or soft palate)

Shape of head and neck may create a smaller than normal airway

Large tonsils or adenoids or other anatomical differences. (A deviated septum, enlarged tongue, or receding chin can also create difficulties breathing during sleep)

Throat muscles and tongue relax more than normal during sleep. (This can be due to alcohol or sedative use before bedtime, but not necessarily)

Snoring - Snoring can cause the soft palate to lengthen, which in turn can obstruct the airway.

Smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke

Nasal congestion, nasal blockages, and nasal irritants

Family history of sleep apnea - No specific genetic marker for sleep apnea has been discovered, but obstructive sleep apnea seems to run in families. This may be a result of anatomic abnormalities that run in the family

Other disorders and syndromes - Hypothyroidism, acromegaly, amyloidosis, vocal cord paralysis, post-polio syndrome, neuromuscular disorders, Marfan's syndrome, and Down Syndrome

Other physical conditions, such as immune system abnormalities, severe heartburn or acid reflux and high blood pressure. It isn’t clear whether the conditions are the cause or the result of sleep apnea

Research shows that snoring and sleep apnea are associated with many serious conditions.

Left untreated, your sleep apnea can be a contributing risk factor to:

High blood pressure:

More than 35% of people with sleep apnea suffer from high blood pressure, increasing their risk of heart disease1

More than 80% of people who continue to suffer from high blood pressure despite taking three or more drugs, also have sleep apnea2

Stroke - Almost 70% of people who have had a stroke have sleep apnea3

Traffic Accidents - A person with sleep apnea is 7 times more likely to have a car accident4

Type 2 diabetes

Depression

Treating sleep apnea can reduce the risk of developing associated diseases. It can also help you feel more energetic so you can do more of the things you want to.