Insomnia, snoring could be an indication of heart problems
Sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep. It is a disorder that is diagnosed by a sleep study, a procedure that we commonly do to diagnose the disorder. The sleep study monitors a variety of functions during sleep including sleep state, eye movement, muscle activity, heart rate, respiratory effort, airflow, and blood oxygen levels. This test is used both to diagnose sleep apnea and to determine its severity. One might have sleep apnea if they snore loudly and feel tired even after a full night’s sleep. It can occur to anyone at any age, including children.
There are two main types of sleep apnea: Obstructive Sleep Apnea: this is the most common form of sleep apnea among Nigerians and it occurs when the throat muscles relax. When these muscles relax, the airways narrow as you breathe in. You can’t get enough air, which lowers the oxygen level in your blood. The brain senses your inability to breathe and briefly wakes you from sleep to breathe. These awakenings are always brief, usually so brief that you sometimes don’t remember it. This constant awakening impairs ones ability to reach deep, restful stage of sleep.
Central Sleep Apnea: this occurs when the brain doesn’t send proper signals to the muscles that control breathing. This simple means that you make no effort to breathe for a short period. This leads to a difficulty in getting sleep or staying asleep.
Symptoms
The symptoms to the two types of sleep apnea overlap, which sometimes makes it difficult to determine which type of sleep apnea one has, the major symptoms are loud snoring, learning and memory difficulties, depression, sexual dysfunction, Continuous pauses in breathing during sleep, morning headaches, Insomnia, Hypersonic, Restless sleep and Occasional waking up, choking or gasping.
Risk factors of Obstructive Sleep Apnea include excessive weight, Neck circumference: having a large neck, Narrowed airway
and nasal obstruction, large tonsils, and Family history and Cardiovascular Disease.
Sleep apnea can also lead to poor performance in everyday activity.
Sleep apnea causes a blockage in the airway that compromises breathing. Those with obstructive sleep apnea tend to sleep with an open mouth, and they sometimes cease breathing before gasping to take in air again. When breathing is restricted, oxygen levels in the body can dip and these drops that may lead to an increase in blood pressure and stress on the cardiovascular system.
Coping with sleep apnea, the most important treatment for people with obstructive sleep
is the continuous positive airway pressure device whenever they sleep which is available at Lagos Executive Cardiovascular Clinic. The health benefits of this therapy can be enormous, but only if used correctly. If you are having problems adjusting your CPAP or you’re experiencing side effects of wearing the appliance, talk to the doctor who prescribed it and ask for assistance.
Getting adequate sleep is essential to maintaining health in sleep apnea patients. If you have symptoms of insomnia such as difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up unrefreshed, talk to us about treatment options.
A further complication of sleep apnea is its correlation with hypertension.
The low oxygen levels signal the blood pressure to rise, receptors in the brain are then triggered and the brain then sends a message to the blood vessels to increase available oxygen to the heart and brain so as to continue their normal functioning. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been recognised as one of the secondary causes of hypertension. Screening for OSA is an essential element when evaluating patients with hypertension. During an episode, there is a surge in the systolic and diastolic pressure that keeps the mean blood pressure level elevated at night in many patients. Patients’ blood pressure still remains elevated during the day time even when breathing has returned back to normal. OSA also leads to an over activity and alterations in the vascular functions of the sympathetic nervous system which then contributes to the diurnal pattern of hypertension.