Sleep Apnea is a sleep disorder in which your breathing stops briefly many times during your nighttime sleep. The breaks in your sleep can cause problems with your memory, mood and health. Untreated sleep apnea may lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, gastroesophageal reflux disease, poor work performance, sexual dysfunction and depression. The condition is also linked to accidents, especially motor vehicle crashes.
Treating Sleep Apnea: Can Your Dentist Help
In obstructive Sleep Apnea, your airway is blocked and you cannot breathe. Your brain senses this and sends a wake-up signal. When your throat muscles relax, the airway opens, and you begin breathing again. This happens hundreds of times a night. These episodes are called apneic events, and they disrupt your sleep and can cause fatigue, irritability, headaches in the morning, sore throat, and dry mouth. You may also snore, although snoring doesn’t occur in all cases of sleep apnea.
Central sleep apnea is a less common form of the condition, and it’s harder to diagnose because symptoms are different. You may experience excessive daytime sleepiness, fatigue, headaches, dry mouth, numbness or tingling in your arms or legs and a feeling that you can’t concentrate. You may also have trouble maintaining an appropriate weight, although this isn’t true for all people with the condition.
The only way to know for sure whether you have obstructive or central sleep apnea is to undergo a sleep study, called polysomnography, which may be done overnight in a laboratory or at home with an at-home monitoring device that measures your heart rate, oxygen levels, and breathing patterns. The results of the test can help your doctor determine the best treatment for you.
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