Snoring May Be Killing You
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Two weeks ago I had a study done that took a look at me during the sleeping hours to see how I did during the evenings rest. They hooked up electrodes and monitors all over my face, head and chest area to evaluate how I slept. Well the results were reviewed with me yesterday and I have what is known as sleep apnea. This is a condition where the soft tissue in the back of my throat closes during the night and I actually stop breathing. My doctor told me that this happened over 20 times during a one hour period. In order to not die while not breathing, my brain alerts my body to wake a few seconds after this happens. Many times I’m told that I do an abrupt gasping for air that scares the heck out of my wife. I don’t remember any of those periods because my body just does a quick “jump start” and then I returns to sleep again.
Sleep apnea is not something to be trifled with or that can be ignored and just put off as “Hey, I just am a restless sleeper”. The truth is that it can have severe consequences by the lack of correct sleep that this generates. Untreated Sleep Apnea can lead to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. It can also be responsible for many of the fatal traffic accidents and job impairment. There is also a cardiac condition called Cor pulmonale.
This condition is as prevalent as adult diabetes and affects more that 12 million Americans. The risk factors are usually adult male, over the age of forty but, and overweight, but this can strike anyone and not just adults. As a mater of fact, more and more kids are being diagnosed with sleep apnea. How I found out was that my wife complained about my snoring and that I needed to get it checked. I talked to my primary care physician and he sent me to a sleep specialist. I didn’t think this was a big thing since I fall asleep almost right away when my head hits the pillow. Well my quick to sleep may have been because I’m so tired during the day that my body is craving this sleep in the first place.
My next step is to have another sleep study with a device called continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). This device provides a constant pressure to the airway in order to keep it open during sleep. This study is similar to the first, but this time I wear a mask over my mouth and nose during sleep. It almost looks like and oxygen mask used in surgery. Again, measurements are taken to see if the sleep is undisturbed and adjustments as to how much air is needed is done.
If your significant other is complaining about your snoring or that you seem to stop breathing while you sleep, you may just want to get this checked since taking your sleep for granted is nothing to close your eyes to.
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