Article by Shakeel Ahmed

CPAP machines are often used for the patients who have sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder, the patient has pauses in breathing or breathing becomes shallow during sleep. These pauses can occur 5 to 30 times an hour. It usually causes loud snort or choking sound. Patients who suffer from sleep apnea often move out of deep sleep to light sleep when their breathing pauses. This problem effects on the entire day’s routine because it results in poor sleep quality and makes them bushed and sleepy throughout the day. It affects the overall performance of the patients.

Usually sleep apnea goes undiagnosed because doctors cannot detect the condition during normal day time visits and there are no blood tests for this problem as well. Mostly patients of OSP do not know that they have it because it occurs during sleep. The roommate or a family member can notice the signs first. There are mainly three types of sleep apnea which are central, obstructive and mixed sleep apnea. Here I will only discuss the Obstructive type of sleep disorder.

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Article by Ray Whitely

Do you feel tired and not refreshed when you wake up in the morning? Are you tired of hearing your spouse complain about your loud snoring and short breaths? If both answers are true, then you may be suffering from a condition known as obstructive sleep apnea. The sleeping position does not matter as this condition is characterized by loud snoring. Most do not realize it, but they occasionally wakeup several times during the night after an interruption in breathing.

The problem with sleep apnea is that the person who suffers from it often does not realize it. Sleep apnea is very common and comes in three kinds known as central, obstructive, and mixed. The effect is that there is an enhanced carbon dioxide level in the blood and the survival mechanism of the body impels the body to take a breath, even in their sleep.

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Article by Aaliyah Arthur

Obstructive sleep apnea is a health condition whereby there are interruptions in breathing when a person is sleeping. This takes place because the airway is either narrowed or blocked. This pause or interruption in the normal breathing process is referred to as an apnea episode. While brief apnea episodes happen to many people due to the fact that the muscles relax during sleep, if the breathing is interrupted for more than 10 seconds at a time and it happens repeatedly throughout the night then it has become a problem that needs to be addressed.

Many people who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea snore. They do this because air is trying to make its way through a blocked or narrowed passageway. However everyone who snores does not necessary suffer from apnea. It is important to make this distinction.

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Article by K.M. Dodd

According to a research done by researchers in Tel Aviv Israel, it was discovered that half of the patients who were diagnosed with essential hypertension, ironically also had obstructive sleep apnea. On top of all the other difficulties that are associated with this sleep disorder, you might just be wondering what exactly it is essential hypertension.

Many times hypertension can be traced back to living a carefree lifestyle, such as too much alcohol, stress, smoking etc. however with essential hypertension, this is not the case..

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In the hurry to know more about the treatment of a condition, most of us lose sight of the rationale of the therapy recommended by the doctor or surgeon. Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition often demands such hurry. But unless you understand some of the basics of this horribly distressful sleep disorder, you might find it extremely difficult to fathom as to why the doctor decided to opt for a particular therapy option.

Ignorance is bliss at times, but not when you are faced with a condition like obstructive sleep apnea that not only robs you of sleep night after night, but may have fatal consequences if not treated at the right time with the right therapy.

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The first step in treating Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is to diagnose it properly. This happens using a sleep study which is more formally known as a polysomnogram. This involves visiting an accredited sleep lab where a technician will attach a series of electrodes and wires to the body. These monitor things like respiration, abdominal force, eye movement so they can track what sleep stage you are in. They will also have a breathing monitor and a camera present in your room.

The camera is very important because it actually physically records someone having an apnea. It is not uncommon for patients to know that they have woken themselves up due to not breathing or to wake up and actually not be able to breathe, taking a second to catch their breath. However some other patients have no idea that they have a problem, they believe they sleep just fine. It is the bed partner who often cannot handle the snoring and the sounds who finally forces them to get treatment.

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Snoring becomes a serious problem when it causes you to stop breathing.. This
is known as sleep apnea and can cause the sufferer to wake up at frequent intervals
during the night.
The most common type is obstructive sleep apnea. During snoring the airways
become narrower as the soft tissue at the back of the throat including the tonsils,
uvula and soft palate relax and move around, however during sleep apnea the
airways become so narrow that they close up completely stopping the flow of
oxygen into the body.
This can last for several seconds and in some cases up to a minute, but reflex
actions cause the sufferer to wake up and start breathing again.
These interruptions to sleep can happen over several hundred times a night.
The heart has to work much harder and could lead to heart failure if not treated.
Sleep apnea can also lead to poor concentration during the day and tiredness
which can affect your performance at work as well as your relationships
You should visit your doctor as soon as possible to discuss methods of treatment
if you suffer from sleep apnea. Many treatments for obstructive sleep apnea
don’t involve surgery and may require you to change your diet or exercise to
lose weight.
You may be advised to use a nasal spray or wear a dental appliance. There is
a machine called a CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure which requires
you to wear a face mask that continually delivers constant air pressure to keep
the airways open.
Sometimes a surgical procedure called LAUP is used to remove excess tissue
from the throat using a laser. It takes about half an hour and is done using
a local anaesthetic. It may though require more than one session if the problem
is very severe.
Snoring can be disruptive not only to the sufferer but also their partner and
sleep apnea certainly requires urgent attention as it could prove fatal if left
untreated.

He gasps, he snorts, and he is grappling for breath! He likely has sleep apnea. (This can happen with women as well.)

You’ve probably heard these telltale signs.

It’s also scary. If you’ve ever lain beside someone with sleep apnea and literally watched that person stop breathing – it is scary!

Snoring
The actual loud snoring sound is created as the soft palette and the uvula vibrate. The uvula is the little fleshy bit of skin that hangs down at the back of your throat. From physics, we know that any rapidly moving air will try to elevate and vibrate the objects in its path; hence, voluminous airflow passing through the nose or mouth causes this loud, intense vibration. It’s the irregularity of the air movement when it’s not consistently even, that causes the sporadic vibration of the soft pallet. The National Sleep Foundation research suggests that about 44 women snore and this snoring affects their bed partners. When someone snores loudly and constantly every night, it is considered chronic snoring. Other times, snoring only occurs on an occasional basis and can be due to excessive tiredness, overeating, sleeping on one’s back, excessive alcohol consumption etc.

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Sleep apnea, or sleep apnoea in British English is a sleep problem where a person has numerous stopages in breathing lasting a time period of ten secs or longer. In numerous instances sufferers can have more than 30 of these apnea’s per hour. Obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) is a distinct sort of sleep apnea which is brought on by your airway becoming obstructed, either by your throat muscle tissues, tongue or uvula.

There are generally a variety of unique signs or symptoms that may indicate you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, the most well-known are; daytime sleepiness, noisy long-term loud night breathing, pauses in breathing while sleeping, nighttime urination, getting up with a dried out and painful throat, sleeplessness & morning headaches. Once treated the majority of of these types of signs and symptoms will cease to exist.

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Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. Each episode, called apneas. Some individuals stop breathing for brief intervals, however, when these episodes of apnea become more frequent and last longer, they can cause the body’s oxygen level to decrease, which can disrupt sleep.

Narrow nasal passages, enlarged tonsils, and obesity are factors that may contribute to obstructive sleep apnea. The condition may also be related to the use of alcohol, tobacco, or sedatives.

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