Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is the disorder in which persons experiences pauses frequently during his or her sleep. These pauses last so long that another one or more breaths can be missed. This pause is called an Apnea. An apneic event can be of 10 seconds duration between breaths. Sleep apneas can be classified into three categories in which Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is the most common type of sleep-disorders.
In this sleep-disorder, the body muscles as usual get relaxed during the sleep and the breathing is blocked due to the soft tissues' walls at the throat level. In obstructive sleep apnea, the treatment is targeted to the sleep deprivation and low blood oxygen. The major risk arises from this sleep apnea is the failure of congestive heart.
Some people are more likely to be affected from the obstructive sleep apnea than ordinary humans. Persons who have soft tissues near the airway and low muscle tone and if their vocal cord is so narrow to breath are more vulnerable for this type of disorder. Elder persons and especially men are more in numbers of having OSA compared to women and children.
Symptoms of Obstructive Sleep Apnea
There are some common symptoms and signs of OSA sleep-disorder that include- snoring, incomplete and restless sleep and daytime sleep.
Snoring is the unique symptom of this disease that includes the loud sound coming from throat and nose. However, this is not common with everyone; overweight and obesity are the major causes for the snoring during sleep. The loudness of snoring signals the severity of OSA. The more narrow way for breathing makes the snoring loud, but it doesn't mean that every person who snores has obstructive sleep apnea. The suggestive sign is that if the snoring stops, the chest speedily tries to breathe that moves the body.
Other symptoms like obesity, morning headaches, sexual dysfunction and micrognathia are also seen in the patients of obstructive sleep apnea. These symptoms are usually found in the elder patients.
Most of the times, patients don't recognize their waking up during the night sleep due to the apneic periods. During the apneas, a patient only wakes up from deep sleep to the superficial sleep, so the patient remains in the impression of sleep. In short, the patient will remain in sleep, but the necessary deep sleep for the complete rest of body will not be available for the patient.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment
Some changes in lifestyle can be helpful for the treatment of OSA. These changes may include avoid alcohol and smoking and to lose weight. Sleeping at 30 degree will also help to stop the collapse of the airway in vocal cords. The surgical procedures are available to widen the airway by removing the tissues around it.
