Danger of Ignoring Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Snoring is natural

Sleep Apnea affects more people than we imagine. It is often ignored because its symptoms are so common place. Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes disruptions in your breathing pattern while you sleep. Breath begins again with a harsh rasping sound we call – snore. A snore is natural and so we did not do anything. This is a common reason and everyone accepts this.

Causes for sleep apnea

The most dangerous thing you can do when you are dealing with sleep apnea is this – ignore it. This ailment can have any one of these causes.

a)     Psychological factor

b)    Nervous system failure

c)     Blockage due to growth in airways

Reason for danger is sleep apnea could lead to a host of other related diseases. Some of these diseases are:

i)                   Congestive heart disease

ii)                 Problems related to synthesis of blood sugar

iii)               Elevated pressure

iv)               Mental disturbances

Physiology of this ailment

When we sleep, the body will repair our damaged cells and carry out metabolic activity like breathing, blood circulation for purification of various tissues, building new cells and tissues and maintaining body temperature. During sleep, the rate of metabolism slows down, consequently body temperature cools down. Body now concentrates on purification and building up process.

When the breath stops altogether, this can occur for as much as fifteen seconds to 2 minutes even, the purification process is halted altogether. The body does not receive enough oxygen and so carbon dioxide builds up in the blood. The cell building process stops and so does all repair activity.

Other related dangers

Synthesizing energy from sugar is the main source of energy for metabolic activities. Due to uneven breathing, metabolic activities are disrupted making it impossible to synthesize the sugar. Now, the body faces an energy crisis and it shuts down unnecessary systems. This leads to various problems in the body.

Cause and treatment of sleep apnea

There are three kinds of causes for sleep apnea. Knowing the cause is vital this will help in treating the disease. All three are of three different kinds.

1)     Obstruction to airways caused by excessive growth of tissues

2)     Failure of central nervous system

3)     Psychological factors

When a person has medical conditions such as tonsillitis it could cause swelling of glands leading to blockage of airways. In addition, if a person has too much of fat he or she might have blockage in the throat region. This constitutes the first cause for sleep apnea.

Second, the central nervous system which signals the person to wake up when the breath stops, does not send the signal. The person remains without breath for a long time and begins to choke. He then wakes up but being in deep sleep, he or she does not realize his or her condition and goes on sleeping.

The third factor is psychological conditions. These are brought on by stress factors or due to illness. The person experiences weakness and in the helpless state fails to breath properly. 

Treatment

One can treat the obstructive sleep apnea by using oral devices. One can use continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) to force the person to breathe properly. The people who are too tired should take some energy drink to improve the metabolic rate. Use of medication like modafinil oral also helps.  

Simple precautions

One can use these steps to avoid aggravating the symptoms. This will only help if the symptoms are mild. If they are severe and need treatment then you should go in for that.

a)     Do not drink alcohol before bedtime

b)    Do not consume sleeping pills

c)     Sleep on one side

(All matter given here is not a substitute for medical advice. If you have any of the symptoms, you shod immediately consult your physician.)