There are three main types of sleep apnea:
- Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which more than 80% of sleep apnea patients have, occurs when enlarged and/or relaxed throat muscles obstruct your upper airway, blocking air from entering and leaving your lungs.
- Central sleep apnea (CSA), so named for its relation to the central nervous system, occurs when the brain stops signalling for the body to breathe until it detects a lack of oxygen and/or a heightened level of carbon dioxide that needs to be exhaled.
- Complex sleep apnea (CompSA) is a combination of OSA and CSA. Here are more details on the different types of sleep apnea.
Eventually your brain senses that you’ve stopped breathing and causes you to wake up just enough to gasp and start breathing again.
Then you fall back to sleep and the cycle begins again. This can happen more than 120 times every hour, even though you may not remember waking up.
As you can imagine, apneas put immense short- and long-term strains on the body.
Short-term effects of sleep apnea
Of course apneas cause the immediate life-threatening danger of not inhaling enough oxygen (or exhaling enough poisonous carbon dioxide). But the body’s constant waking due to these apneas can also cause sleep deprivation. This can lower people’s energy and attentiveness the next day, negatively affect their moods and relationships with others, and raise the risk for memory loss, cognitive impairment and injury.
Long-term effects of sleep apnea
Untreated sleep apnea has been linked to an increased risk for other chronic and life-threatening conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart failure, as well as poorer glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes.
The first step toward treating sleep apnea and living healthier is recognizing the signs and symptoms of sleep apnea and asking your doctor to get screened and tested. Roughly 80% of people with sleep apnea don’t know they have it, partly because they can never witness their own nighttime symptoms.
Common sleep apnea symptoms
While snoring is still the strongest predictor of sleep apnea in men and women, not everyone who snores has it. And more important, not everyone who has it snores. Below are other common sleep apnea symptoms:
- Constant tiredness
- Poor concentration
- Night sweats
- Weight gain
- Lack of energy
- Forgetfulness
- Sexual dysfunction
- Frequent urination at night
In addition, women often show subtler, atypical symptoms such as insomnia, morning headaches, depression and anxiety. These symptoms often lead to misdiagnoses such as depression, insomnia or menopausal side effects. If you have these symptoms, be sure to ask your doctor about whether you might have sleep apnea.
The benefits of sleep apnea treatment
What are the benefits of treating sleep apnea? When left untreated, sleep apnea can negatively affect your energy levels, productivity and mental well-being. It can also have long-term, adverse effects on your heart, metabolism and overall health. Sleep apnea can affect anyone, fit or overweight, old or young, male or female. It can even affect children. A few of the common symptoms are:
- Loud snoring
- Lack of energy
- Daytime sleepiness
- Morning headaches
- A partner or family member notices that you stop breathing during sleep
Effective treatment of sleep apnea has been shown to help alleviate these symptoms, which can lead directly to a healthier mental outlook and improved well-being. If you think you or someone you know might have sleep apnea, it’s important that you talk to a doctor or health care professional. Be sure to let your doctor know if any of the following apply to you:
- I’ve been told that I stop breathing during sleep.
- My family tells me I snore.
- I’m tired all day even after a full night's sleep.
- I have no energy.
- I frequently wake up with a headache.
- I nap anytime and anywhere I can.
A home setup is similar to that in a clinic, hospital or sleep lab, with the added comfort and convenience of staying at home. Prior to the night of the sleep study, a sleep clinician will have shown your patient how to apply the sensors and monitors, and how to use the recording device during the night.
On the night of the sleep test, the patient should simply follow a normal evening routine, then attach the monitors and begin the recording before sleeping. In the morning, they simply remove everything as shown and return the recording device to the clinic, hospital or sleep lab.
A simpler home setup can be performed using ResMed’s ApneaLink Air, a compact, lightweight and easy-to-use home sleep testing device. The ApneaLink Air is capable of recording up to five channels of information, including respiratory effort, pulse, oxygen saturation, nasal flow and snoring.
