Symptoms and Manifestations of Sleep Apnea

Are you suffering from a sleep disorder known as sleep apnea? Chances are that you are not fully aware or you could be in denial. Unlike many disorders, sleep apnea is not easily diagnosed. No doctor could tell if you have one only after one consultation or visit. It is also not diagnosed through blood tests and other clinical procedures.

It is often the roommate or bed partner of a patient who could tell if a person has sleep apnea. That is because no person could really tell what goes on during his sleep, just like no person could tell if he really snores because he could not hear himself do so during his own sleep.

There are general symptoms and signs that a person has sleep apnea. It is important that you know of such indications. If you could not observe it in yourself, probably you could observe it in your bedmate or roommate. It is also important that your housemates or family know of the following manifestations and symptoms of the condition.

First, there is chronic or ongoing and loud snoring. You may notice sudden and prolonged pauses in between snores. This could indicate that breathing is pauses, a major symptom that there is actually sleep apnea. After a while, the person could suddenly gasp or choke, an indication that there is difficulty in breathing. Take note that this could only happen during sleep.

Snoring is a good indication and it should be observed well. Usually, snoring is at its loudest when a person sleeps in his back; less noisy if a person turns to his side. It may not happen every single night. However, when there is sleep apnea, snoring happens more frequently and it gets louder and louder. You could not tell if you have sleep apnea, as mentioned. You are probably asleep when gasping or snoring occurs. Another thing to emphasize is that not all people who snore suffers from sleep apnea.

Another major symptom of sleep apnea is a person’s tendency and strong urge to fight off sleepiness on daytime, especially after the sleep apnea attack. It could be very dangerous if the person would go on to drive or operate risky equipment at work. That is because lack of sleep may catch up anytime of the day.

You could find yourself immediately and rapidly falling asleep especially during the quieter time of the day or when there is temporary idleness. If you think you have attained enough hours of sleep but still you are sleepy the following day, you might be suffering from sleep apnea, which triggers stress hormone production that leads to this manifestation.

There are more signs and symptoms observed. Sleep apnea could possibly be present if you suffer from regular morning headaches, depression, personality changes, and mood swings. Feeling of irritability is often observed in people with the disorder. There is also frequent urination at night. When you wake up, you may feel that your throat is all dried up, which should not be the case.

Sleep apnea is more frequent in adults but children are not totally spared. Sleep apnea in children is shown through hyperactivity, aggressiveness, and poor school performance. They also tend to have unusual sleeping positions and may breathe through the mouth instead of through nose during daytime. Bedwetting could also be a manifestation.

Sleep Apnea Symptoms

Sleep apnea can exist for years without being diagnosed. This is because the sleep disorder manifests itself only during sleep, just when the person suffering from it is totally out of the bounds of consciousness to actually notice the irregularities. On the other hand, his bed partner may take the snoring and snorting as normal occurrences.

An undiagnosed case of sleep apnea, however, can be irritating and fatal all at the same time. Those who have it can experience as simple as fatigue and as life-threatening as heart disease. But the question is, how can one be so sure if he or his loved one is already having bouts with sleep apnea? There are warning signs to look out for, and they come as sleep apnea symptoms.

Red Flag: The signs and symptoms
Sleep apnea requires prompt attention. If the following symptoms surface, a consultation with a doctor or a sleep specialist must immediately take place.

1. Snoring. Not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, but snoring is typical to those who suffer from the sleep disorder. Loud and chronic snoring is ordinarily accompanied by grunts, snorts, gasps for breath, and restless movements.

2. Breathing irregularities. Sleep apnea renders a person to have breath pauses that lead to frequent and brief silences during sleep, but which then break into loud snoring. It is the bed partner who notices these breath intervals.

3. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). It is described as the unordinary and persistent sleepiness. People experiencing EDS normally feel the urge to and sometimes involuntarily fall asleep for brief moments many times during the day and when performing daily itinerary such as eating, talking over the phone, and driving. Over time, EDS becomes a threat to someone’s performance at work and in school because it usually weakens a person’s competency to complete tasks.

4. Daytime fatigue. Due to disrupted sleep, people with sleep apnea normally feel tired as though they haven’t slept the night before. It then results in forgetfulness, lack of concentration, and learning difficulties. Mood changes are also apparent, causing the person to become irritable and anxious.

5. Depression. Although it is not clear how exactly sleep apnea contributes to depression, it is said that people with the sleep disorder are five times more prone to developing depression. Sleep apnea is also reported to aggravate an existing case of depression.

6. Morning headache. People suffering from sleep apnea wake up with morning headache. In fact, statistics says that headaches occur in approximately half of the people with sleep apnea. Headaches at night are also reported.

7. Other symptoms. People with sleep apnea have a frequent need to urinate at night and experience excessive sweating when asleep. Upon waking up, they tend to have a dry throat. Sexual dysfunction is also observed from people with sleep apnea.

Experts suggest that the more sleep apnea symptoms present in a person and the more intense they are, the more severe his case of sleep apnea is. Undergoing sleep test and treatment then is necessary. But because it is hard for a potential patient to observe some of these symptoms from himself, the bed partner is put in a place of greater accountability.

Any suspected case of sleep apnea should not be taken for granted. Rather, it should be monitored extensively.

Sleep Apnea In Children: The Causes, Symptoms, And Treatments

Although sleep apnea mostly affects the older population, it is also experienced by children usually under the ages three to six. Sleep apnea in children is in the same way troubling as in adults. If it remains undiagnosed and untreated, it leaves the children with learning difficulties, weak school performance, mood and behavior problems, poor interpersonal abilities, developmental delays, and worse, high blood pressure and heart problems.

Causes
A common sleep disorder, sleep apnea occurs when the person stops breathing for brief periods that average 30 seconds. It is caused by an obstruction in the airway. In children, majority of the cases of sleep apnea result from enlarged tonsils and adenoids. Some cases of enlargement are due to infection.

But in some children, facial and structural deformities cause the narrowing of the airway. It can be that the children are born with smaller jaw, larger tongue, and smaller opening of the throat. Some facial deformities are also caused by certain craniofacial syndromes such as Down Syndrome, Treacher Collins Syndrome, and Pierre Robin Sequence. Children with these syndromes have structural deformities in the jaw, nose, and mouth, and have poor muscle tone, making them more at risk for developing sleep apnea.

Tumors anywhere that affects the airway can also contribute to the development of sleep apnea, since the presence of a tumor diminishes the muscle tone and therefore causes an obstruction. Although very rare, obesity can also be a cause. The fatty cells that amass in the throat tissue result in the narrowing of the airway.

Symptoms
As in adults, loud and heavy snoring is always the first symptom of sleep apnea in children. But since 10 to 20% of children snore at some point, even without the presence of sleep apnea, it is important for the parents to look for other symptoms in their kids.

Other symptoms include mouth breathing, bedwetting, odd sleeping positions, extreme sweating while sleeping, hyperactivity, excessive sleepiness, short attention span, aggressiveness, and behavior problems. Other children may also do poorly in school, have learning problems, and not grow according to their age.

Unlike adults who have the tendency to get overweight, children with sleep apnea are usually thin and may experience weight loss. This is because obstruction in the airway, especially in the throat and nose area, makes eating quite uncomfortable. Burning of calories is also at a higher speed due to abnormal breathing patterns.

Treatments
Since the enlargement of tonsils and adenoids is the common cause of sleep apnea in children, tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, where enlarged tonsils and adenoids are removed, are the usual treatment.

But those who won’t benefit from such surgeries or may develop complications after going through them will be prescribed to use continuous positive airway pressure or CPAP. This is a nose mask connected to a machine that delivers pressurized air and keeps the airway open. Parents need to realize that CPAP may be a little uncomfortable to use, but some adjustments may allow the kids to get to use to it.

Sleep apnea in children requires immediate medical attention. If parents suspect their kids to have this sleep disorder, they need to promptly see a doctor or a sleep specialist. The severity of the case and identification of treatments will be based on the symptoms, medical evidence of enlargement of tonsils and adenoids, and sleep test results.

Causes of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is one of the more common types of sleep disorder. Many people who suffer from it may not be totally aware of the presence of the condition. This is because sleeping people are not normally aware of that is happening as they sleep. In most cases, it is the bed partner or room mates of an affected person who could tell if he is suffering from the condition. Sleep apnea does not pose immediate and very severe threats, but it is still considered a very dangerous condition. What actually cause the problem?

Your throat muscles are responsible for keeping the airway in your throat stiff and open when you are awake. This helps keep the lungs open for air breathing. During sleep, the same muscles get more relaxed. Relaxed throat muscles usually keeps airway open so that air could still flow into the lungs. However, at times, the airways could get blocked or narrowed especially during sleep. Such is the condition when there is sleep apnea.

There are several specific reasons why the airway passage gets obstructed or blocked during sleep. First, the throat muscles and even the tongue get more relaxed than normal. Second, tonsils and tongue are naturally larger than normal that they serve as obstruction to opening of your windpipe. Third, if you are overweight, there could be extra soft fat tissues that could thicken your windpipe’s wall. This occurrence makes the interior of the airway opening narrow, making it also harder to remain or keep open.

Blocking of the airways during sleep apnea could also be due to the natural shape of your own head and neck. If you have a bony structure in the areas, chances are greater that you could have a smaller than normal airway size in the throat and even in the mouth. Lastly, the aging process could also be factor. Old age could limit the brain’s ability to send signals that would keep throat muscles ideally stiff during sleep. Such an occurrence could make airways narrower and eventually collapse.

In general, it is logical that not sufficient air supply flows into the lungs when the airways are partly or fully blocked, especially during sleep. In most cases, such a condition could lead to very loud snoring and to significant decline in your body’s blood oxygen level. Be reminded that there could be risks when the oxygen level falls to very dangerous levels.

It could trigger the brain to effectively disturb your sleep. This is a natural reflex to that the upper airway muscled would be kept tight and the windpipe open. Sleep apnea occurs in a few minutes, after which, normal breathing could effectively resume. This is often heralded by a sudden loud choking sound or snort.

It is also natural that frequent drops in your body’s oxygen level and at the same time reduced or lack of sleep could trigger unlikely release of natural stress hormones. When this happens, the heart rate is raised and there is increased risk for heart attack, hypertension, stroke, and even irregular heartbeats. Stress hormones could also worsen a prevailing heart failure or ailment.

It is important that sleep apnea be treated or you could develop obesity and diabetes due to significant changes on how the body is using energy.