Sleep is the perfect time to rest and recoup your body and mind. It enables the body and mind to recharge and freshen up. After you come home, exhausted from the office, all you can think about is sleep. Once you get your daily dose of sleep, you have that energetic feeling inside you after waking up.
Sleeping also helps in maintaining good body health. It is advisable to sleep for at least 7+ hours daily, if not more. Sleeping for the right amount of time will increase efficiency in doing tasks. Along with these benefits, proper sleep also increases social and emotional intelligence. It also boosts our immune system, further helping our bodies to counter unwanted diseases or, in some cases, lead to the death.
After an exhaustive day at the workplace, at the gym, or anywhere else, many people go into a deep sleep. Some people, without realizing it, experience discontinued breathing. This condition is termed sleep apnea.
Know about sleep apnea?
It is a profound sleep disorder. In this, the person’s breathing is interrupted while sleeping. It stops and starts, and the cycle can continue for more than twenty seconds. A person, who snores heavily and feels tired even after a whole night’s sleep, is suffering from sleep apnea.
The interruption in breathing can continue as much as 30 times in 60 minutes. This occurs when the muscles supporting sensitive tissues relax for a short period. Due to this, the airway path gets narrow or sometimes even blocked and cuts off breathing. This sudden drop in the blood oxygen causes the brain to react and respond by waking up to reopen the airway path. This immediate waking up causes gasps for breath.
Sleep apnea is generally of three types:
- The first type is obstructive sleep apnea. It is the most common form of sleep apnea occurring to people almost across the globe. In this form, the soft muscles in the throat tend to relax, causing discontinuity and breathing.
- The second one is central sleep apnea. This type occurs when the brain cannot send the signals to muscles controlling breathing. This remains for a short while during sleep.
- The final one is the complex sleep apnea syndrome. It occurs when someone has both of the above two sleep apneas. It is a mixture of obstructive and central sleep apnea.
How do you determine if you have sleep apnea?
If you are coming across any of the following symptoms, you must get yourself checked up for sleep apnea. “How do you know if you have sleep apnea” is the most common question among people. The below-mentioned points will help you determine if you have sleep apnea:
- Booming Snoring – Snoring loudly than usual when asleep. This is one of the symptoms of apnea and does not guarantee the presence of the issue.
- Discontinued breathing – Noticed by you or by any other person. If someone from your family tells you about it, take the issue up with your doctor.
- Gasping and choking for air – Finding it challenging to get air and heavily gasping to get some air can be a severe symptom of sleep apnea.
- Unreasonable morning headaches and irritation – When you wake up and feel your head weighed or have an unnecessary headache, look for the above symptoms together with this one. If it satisfies, then it is advisable to consult a doctor.
- Waking up with a dry mouth – Dry mouth and the above-stated symptoms are signs of sleep apnea.
- Drowsiness during daytime – This sleepiness during the day might occur due to insufficient sleep at night because of discontinuity in breathing.
Having the symptoms mentioned above tells us how to check sleep apnea.
Above 20 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea. And nearly half of them go unnoticed in their entire lives. People taking this disease lightly should know that it is essential to monitor the sleep cycle and notice symptoms of sleep apnea. If you are having trouble as to which doctor to consult, you can always opt to go to sleep apnea troy. Here are some steps that help in self-diagnosing sleep apnea seamlessly:
- Using at-home sleep tests
Here, patients can track breathing and oxygen levels by using a breathing monitor and undergoing a self test for sleep apnea. Here are some vital things to know and note about the home sleep tests:
- The home tests should be done as instructed and only after consultation with a doctor or a dentist. The doctor should give you the go-ahead to undergo these tests.
- Your sleep hours cannot be monitored. You can only monitor your breathing. It will not tell you how much time you were asleep and whether it is sufficient or not. But, it will let you know about your breathing, including deep or shallow, fast-paced or regular, and also your breathing rate.
- Sleep tests are easy to use and affordable. You will be at your peak comfort level when you take the test. So, the results obtained would be accurate.
- Similar sleep issues like sleep apnea can be detected through the test.
However, it should also be considered that these tests do not necessarily diagnose sleep apnea. They only help in determining it.
- Use of Applications
There are a variety of apps available online to track snoring during sleep. The apps keep track of your snoring by recording you when you are sound asleep and checking for loud sounds. However, this may not accurately detect sleep apnea happening without snoring. Also, it may take sounds from surroundings like traffic noise or other disturbances.
Irrespective of the tests you opt for, whether at home or overnight sleep in the clinic, you should quickly book an appointment with a physician for further treatment if you have a blocked airway causing difficulty breathing.
Conclusion
Sleep apnea is heavily linked to excessive weight and obesity or high blood pressure increasing the pressure on your heart even sometimes resulting in heart failure. The heart does not perform in proper conditions if you have sleep apnea. These reasons are enough to get a diagnosis as early as possible. Sleep apnea further hinders daily performance by inducing daytime fatigue.
For some reason, maximum people do not think of sleep apnea as an essential medical issue. And not having a proper sleep can, in turn, have serious health issues and limit your efficiency.
Also, changes in lifestyle can reduce sleep apnea symptoms by maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, trying a different sleep position, and limiting the usage of alcohol. These changes, if implemented smoothly, can add up to significant results. Sleep apnea troy will help you with the required things and will answer your questions regarding sleep apnea. We have different therapy for sleep apnea, you must visit us!
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