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Sleep Apnea and Snoring
A case history of a person with sleep apnea storing might present something like this. The snorer wonders why he snores. He takes a lot of kidding and joking comments from friends and family members. The strange and hilarious sounds he makes while sleeping are great cause for laughter at his expense. At first he takes the kidding in good grace, but then it becomes less and less funny. As he loses sleep several nights in a row, he starts to become oversensitive, irritable then downright testy. He’s coming to realize that snoring is a serious problem and no one seems to do more than make fun of his predicament.
When a person is missing out on sleep and cannot sleep through the night, the snoring may not be simple snoring, but a sleep disorder called Sleep Apnea. The symptoms of Sleep Apnea Snoring include occasional choking and gasping for breath while sleeping. Sudden episodes of very loud snoring with obstructed breathing occur from 30 to 300 times per night and can last 10 seconds or more. These produces reduced oxygen levels in the blood and in turn causes the heart to overwork.
Immediate side effects of Sleep Apnea Snoring are that there is not a restful night and the person is sleepy during the day. After several nights of sleep deprivation, he becomes very jittery, has difficulty concentrating, becomes overly moody and may suffer from periodic headaches. If Sleep Apnea Snoring continues untreated it can lead to heart failure, hypertension and irregular heartbeats.
Sleep Apnea Snoring is more common among males, obese people and people over age forty, but children also suffer from the condition, sometimes due to large tonsils or excess throat tissue, or large neck sizes.
A person who is experiencing the symptoms should be checked by a doctor who may order a polysomnogram as a diagnostic tool. The polysomnogram records heart rate, muscle activity, air flow, blood oxygen levels and electrical activity of the brain during sleep.
Treatment for Sleep Apnea Snoring can include changes like healthy eating and a sound exercise program, which helps in mild cases. More serious treatment takes advantage of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) to gently force air through the upper airway, preventing tissue from obstructing breathing during sleep. Even more invasive treatment will require surgery to remove enlarged tonsils, or correct a deformed nasal septum.
