Sleep Apnea Cures
A good night’s sleep is essential to optimal health. For many people however, this can prove frustrating and elusive. There are a number of conditions that can interfere with getting enough sleep. Of these, sleep apnea is the most potentially dangerous.
Sleep apnea is a disruption of breathing while asleep, causing periodic gasping for air or struggling for breath, sometimes hundreds of times during the night. Most people who suffer from this disorder do not realize they have it, because when they awaken they don’t remember having trouble breathing.
If not treated, sleep apnea can be life-threatening, so it is very important to ensure that your breathing is normal during the night. It is advisable to watch for the warning signs and seek out sleep apnea solutions as soon as possible. These warning signs can include very loud snoring or gasping; choking as if unable to get air into the lungs; sudden awakenings during the night, sometimes waking up sweating; and feeling exhausted during the day even with a full night’s sleep.
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What causes these awakenings? When breathing is interrupted due to sleep apnea, it changes the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. The imbalance of these essential chemicals signals the brain to restart the breathing process. These awakening incidents are necessary to restart breathing, but may not be remembered later. The result is feeling very tired and unrefreshed by any amount of sleep.
There are two main types of sleep apnea.
The most common is Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), which is caused by an obstruction that blocks flow of air in the nose and mouth. With OSA, the throat collapses during sleep, obstructing the airway and preventing air from reaching the lungs. In a healthy person, the throat muscles keep the throat and airway open during sleep. In some people, however, these muscles can relax more than normal, due to age, alcohol, other sedatives, or even being overweight or obese. People with certain physical factors, such as large tonsils or tongue, deviated septum, or enlarged adenoids, can also be more at risk for sleep apnea. Even temporary factors such as nasal congestion can cause sleep apnea.
The other type of sleep apnea, though less common, is Central Sleep Apnea (CSA). This is a central nervous system disorder in which the brain signals instructing the body to breathe are delayed. CSA can be caused by a diseases or injuries of the brain, such as viral brain infections, strokes, brain tumors, or respiratory problems. CSA sufferers seldom snore. While the causes of sleep apnea are different in CSA and OSA, they both are serious conditions that result in a deprivation of oxygen and not enough sleep.
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The effects of sleep deprivation can include irritability, inability to concentrate, and a compromised immune system. The problems of oxygen deprivation are even more serious: heart disease, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction, learning and memory problems, and depression. If you suspect you might have sleep apnea, try keeping a “sleep journal” for several nights (or have your partner record the data). Include information such as snoring, any choking or gasping sounds, and awakening during the night.
Also make a note of how refreshed you feel in the morning. You should also try losing any excess weight and refraining from sedatives before bed. After you have recorded a typical time period of your sleep (perhaps a week), consult a doctor or a sleep specialist. If they suspect you have sleep apnea, you will probably be sent for an overnight study in a sleep lab. By observation and measuring how frequently you stop breathing, a diagnosis can be reached and a cure for sleep apnea can be discussed.
The most important thing for your health is to make sure that you are getting a normal night’s sleep. Sleep apnea cures can be as simple as lifestyle changes so seek out help today.
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Causes And Treatments For Sleep Apnea
If you put your head on the pillow every night , go to sleep immediately and don’t wake up until the sun rises, chances are that you will not know what sleep apnea means. But what do say or do when a loved one or somebody close to you, wakes you up in the middle of the night and begins to gasp for breath? This might be frightening but true because people that battle with sleep apnea often have to deal with significant loss in oxygen level.
Sleep Apnea is a known chronic disorder/ condition where breathing halts during sleep. To have a broader understanding of sleep apnea , you need to know the symptoms of this malady which includes recurrent awakenings at night, unexplainable fatigue level, frequent memory loss, rapid loss of breath , irregular blood pressure and similar heart related issues.
Causes of sleep apnea includes:
1. Impediments that stops oxygen from entering the lungs.
2. Hypothyroidism , that is under active thyroids.
3. Failure of the brain to send the necessary signals to the muscle that allows oxygen to pass on and this makes the windpipe to collapse.
Thankfully there are sleep apnea solutions proven to help in many cases and this includes:
1. Natural Sleep Apnea Treatments. This involves embarking on a dietary program , stopping your alcohol and tobacco intake and sleeping at regular hours.
2. Herbal Treatment/Alternative medicine. According to information available certain herbs like Passion flower and Valerian have the ability to aid sleep and curtail side effects that might occur from taking medical drugs when treating sleep apnea. It is recognized that these herbs also help to calm the nerve, reduce anxiety and promote sound sleep.
3. Surgical Treatment. When every thing else fails you might want to try surgery and this is suggested for people who have a severe obstructions in the throat due to enlarged tonsils or polyps.
In conclusion the following are general tips you might want to share or observe concerning sleep apnea
1. Have a specific time for going to bed.
2. Avoid heavy meals before sleeping and eat your dinner in time.
3. Embark on restful activities, before bedtime. This will help calm your nerves
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What Causes Sleep Apnea?
Sleep apnea can be specifically mentioned as a sleep disorder which causes breathing with pauses during sleep. What it means exactly is that, when someone suffers from this disorder, he most of the time misses a couple of breaths and that too repetitive throughout the sleep. Sleep apnea is such a sleep disorder, which can occur in three different forms.
The first is the Central sleep apnea, in which the couple of breaths that are missed happen due to the lack of respiratory effort. The second one is the Obstructive sleep apnea, in which the breathing gets interrupted due to the presence of some kind of a physical block in the airflow. The third one is known as the Complex sleep apnea, which in fact is a combination of the other two forms, i.e. Central as well as Obstructive; hence in this form both, the breathing gets interrupted because of even the presence of physical block as well as the lack of respiratory effort.
Many people are not aware of being suffering from sleep apnea, as one may not remember the difficulty one suffered while breathing during sleep. People tend to suffer from this problem for quite many years, but very seldom they identify it. There can be many confusions arising in people’s mind regarding the possible causes of sleep apnea. To tell the truth, there can be an endless list about the possible causes of sleep apnea, as well as many sleep apnea solutions.
The airflow can be possibly blocked due to many reasons. For instance, if a person is obese, he/she is prone to have sleep apnea, as there is an interruption in breathing due to over accumulation of fats in the body. Even an asthmatic patient has a tendency of suffering from this sleep disorder. Few other causes could be GERD, physical abnormalities and even disorders related to one’s central nervous system. Whenever any of the causes tends to obstruct the breathing, it stops in regular intervals resulting in sleep apnea.
Apart from that, there are many other possible causes of sleep apnea. If a person’s throat muscles or his tongue tends to relax more than required. If one’s tongue as well as tonsils are possibly larger than normal, than there is a possibility of blocking of airways. Other than all these causes, even one’s lifestyle can be a major cause of sleep apnea. Smoking, consumption of alcohol as well as chewing tobacco is few of the possible causes of sleep apnea.
Tags: airflow, causes of sleep apnea, obstructive sleep apnea, REM, sleep, Sleep Apnea, Sleep Apnea Solutions, sleep disorder, throat muscles, tonsils