Are you a persistent heavy snorer at night? If yes, you could be suffering from sleep apnea disorder, a condition considered a serious medical condition in the 21st century.

Snoring is a widely prevalent problem for over 40% of males and 24% of females worldwide. In most cases, snoring is a nuisance for the sleep partners. Other times, though, snoring can signify a more serious health problem called sleep apnea.

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a chronic disorder(condition) that interrupts your breathing while you sleep, even hundreds of times in a single night’s sleep. If you observe sleep apnea symptoms, you might want to reach out to your healthcare provider for a treatment solution. But the most important fact is that sleep apnea often involves the jaw position while asleep.

What Are The Types of Sleep Apnea

Typically, there are two major types of sleep apnea, both of which are characterized by loud and heavy snoring:

• Obstructive sleep apnea: This kind is the most common. It occurs when the muscles in the back of the throat are relaxed, blocking the airway.
• Central sleep apnea: This type of apnea occurs less commonly in people. It happens when the brain fails to transmit the proper signals to the muscles that control breathing.

What Causes It?

Obstructive Sleep apnea occurs when the tissue in the back of the throat falls completely or partially during sleep. The tissue collapses when the muscles behind the throat and the tongue relax and block the airway.

Lower blood oxygen levels could be a major reason for this disorder. When one has lower blood oxygen levels, the brain is alerted immediately. Once the brain receives the signal, it tries to gain more air by waking the person up. These events often occur with a snorting, choking, or gasping sound. Their frequency might be upto 30 times an hour.

To add to this, each wake-up event may be super short, so much so that a person doesn’t even notice them, thinking they got a full night’s rest. But in reality, sleep is highly disrupted, and the person has exhaustion the upcoming day.

According to Project Global Cure, everal factors contribute to this chronic condition:

• Size of the jaw or throat: Having a smaller upper airway, recessed chin, small jaw, or bigger overbite are some of the culprits.
• Weighing more: Fat accumulated around the upper airway may obstruct breathing.
• Huge neck circumference: Women and men with a neck circumference greater than 17 and 16 inches respectively tend to have narrower airways.
• Age factor: Sleep Apnea is more common after the age of 60.
• Gender: Men are two times more likely than women to develop it. 
• Region: China, the USA, Brazil, India, and Russia have the highest cases.
• Genetics: Sleep apnea sometimes runs in the family.

What Are The Symptoms Of Sleep Apnea?

Loud and heavy snoring, of course, is the most usual symptom of this condition, followed by silent breathing pauses and choking or gasping sounds. Other symptoms include daytime sleepiness or tiredness as a result of restless, unrefreshing sleep, insomnia, morning headaches, waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom (nocturia), difficulty in concentrating, memory loss, decreased sexual desire, irritability, awakening with a dry mouth or sore throat, and heartburn.

Why Does Diagnosis Matter?

Sleep apnea is a widespread and often undiagnosed condition. Since it causes sleep disturbances, sleep apnea leads to significant impairment in memory, mood, and cognitive functioning. However, treating it can go a long way in restoring good sleep and, thereby, health and well-being.

Sleep apnea can also increase the odds of developing other health complications, like high blood pressure and stroke, cardiac and/or liver problems, surgery complications, and most importantly, sleep-deprived partners.

You can only know for sure whether you have the disorder by undergoing a sleep test - at home or at a lab.

For many hours, sensors help track your brain waves, eye and chin movements, heart rate and rhythm, respiration, blood oxygen levels, and leg movements. This data can be used to confirm a sleep apnea diagnosis and determine how severe the case is.

Treatment Options

CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine is the most common central sleep apnea treatment. In this, the individual does a mask while sleeping to help create a steady stream of air to gently keep the airways open throughout the night. This treatment is recommended by most doctors.

The second most common method is an MRD (Mandibular Repositioning Device) treatment, a.k.a oral appliance therapy. The patient will be fitted for a device like an orthodontic retainer that prevents airways from collapsing during sleep by sliding the jaw forward or holding the tongue in place.

Positional therapy is the new sleep apnea treatment used to treat sleep apnea when sleeping on backs. One choice is to wear a device around the waist or back that forces the individual to sleep on the side. Another option is to wear the device behind the neck to gently alert the person when they sleep on their back. This alert (vibration) notifies the body to switch positions without waking the person.

Lifestyle changes can help treat this condition. This would include weight loss for obese or overweight, quitting smoking, and drinking less alcohol that helps keep the airway passages open and wide.

Most sleep apnea treatments cost a little and take some time to get used to. Like most medications, it can take trial and error with your health care provider to find the perfect fit. Nevertheless, the treatment is always worth it - above all, you cannot put a price tag on your health or a wonderful night’s sleep!

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