It is important to remember that most people with sleep apnea do not remember waking up during the night. Instead, family members often report or complain about the problem. These daytime symptoms may also be a clue:
- Morning headaches
- Excessive daytime sleepiness
- Irritability and impaired mental or emotional functioning
- Excessive snoring, choking or gasping during slee
- Waking with a dry mouth and/or sore throat
It’s important to understand that sleep apnea is a potentially life-threatening disorder. Those with sleep apnea are often so fatigued during the day that their performance while driving is similar to that of drunk drivers. When the condition goes untreated, it can lead to impaired daytime functioning, high blood pressure, heart attack and even stroke.
“Is it ever ‘just snoring’? It seems like everything these days is life-threatening!”
Actually, yes, there is just “plain old snoring”, and then there is “sleep apnea”. What’s the difference? Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person actually stops breathing for 10 seconds or more, between 10 and 60 times a night. This frequency can have a tremendous negative impact on a person’s health. There are actually two major types of sleep apnea-obstructive and central. With obstructive apnea, the walls in your throat relax while you are sleeping, so much so that the airway actually collapses and prevents air from flowing. Central apnea works entirely differently in that the brain mechanisms that control breathing are actually interrupting breathing during sleep. Obstructive apnea is the more common of the two.
“So how do you know the difference between snoring and sleep apnea?”
- A classic sleep apnea pattern may sound like this: your spouse hears you snoring loudly, followed by silence, then a snort or choking sound as you resume breathing. The silence and the choking are important to notice, as this is when the body is not getting any oxygen at all, then it wakes itself to gasp for air.
- See a sleep-apnea specialist, such as Dr. Blumenstock, who can perform a dental sleep disorder consultation and give you a conclusive response on whether you have a common sleep disruption, or the much more serious disorder, sleep apnea, which should be treated to protect your health.
“What if I have sleep apnea? What now?”
If you believe that you have sleep apnea, or have already been diagnosed with the condition, there are a number of solutions, depending on the severity of the condition. With mild cases, simple adjustments to your lifestyle may be suggested such as weight loss, sleep positioning, exercise, or cessation of smoking. For moderate to severe cases, there are oral appliances and/or the CPAP mask (read more about treatments), and oral surgery. Consult a dentist if you have concerns about sleep apnea. http://www.sleep-apnea-dentist-nj.info/index.htm
