Article by George Mitchell Sr.

We generally hear sleep apnea being talked about as being a condition that’s signified by loud, chronic snoring. But that’s not always the truth. Each time a person is affected with obstructive apnea, they snore as air pushes past a totally or partially blocked airway, with all the breathing interruptions happening a minimum of 5 and quite often in excess of 30 times an hour. In the event you share your bed with somebody that hasn’t resolved his or her obstructive apnea, you are aware how annoying this really is. Furthermore the breathing interruptions lead to your partner’s moving from a state of deep sleep to light sleep, however they may have the identical effect on you, leaving you both feeling tired, irritable and not able to concentrate during waking hours.

However, when your partner suffers from central apnea, you might not know that they’re experiencing sleep apnea. As opposed to obstructive apnea that results from a blocked airway, central apnea is brought on by the brain’s ineffectively communicating the right breathing actions towards the breathing muscles. Consequently, the sufferer intermittently gasps for air as opposed to snoring. Central apnea is less frequent that obstructive apnea, but it’s no less dangerous to a person’s long-term health. Both obstructive and central apnea can increase a person’s risk to get a many negative health issues, including high blood pressure, hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, erection dysfunction, obesity, depression and poor concentration. But the most damaging effect of sleep apnea is its weakening of the immune system. As with all insomnia issues, the insufficient sleep that results form apnea causes immune cells to function with less efficiency and therefore decreases the human body’s capability to fight off infection and disease.

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Article by Mike Connery

Obstructive sleep apnea is a condition in which your breathing stops for a very brief moment during routine sleep due to a narrowing or blocking of the airway. People may sometimes be experiencing many hundreds of these apnea episodes, or interruptions in breathing, through a single given night. Most people identified as having this medical condition, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), have a significant problem with snoring. Snoring becomes a problem either for themselves or for a partner, spouse or another family member with whom they’re sleeping. There are many different popular treatments for obstructive sleep apnea patients to get the condition under control, including snoring and apnea episodes. Oral appliances, or OAs, open the upper airway typically by pulling up as the OSA patient inhales and exhales. This will make the airways less narrow, which minimizes snoring and, purportedly, apnea episodes as well. Another major treatment for OSA patients is with the usage of continuous positive airway pressure machines. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machines actually send forced air through the airways, keeping them open to prevent apnea and minimizing snoring. Obviously, there is much debate concerning the various treatments for obstructive sleep apnea and which yields the best results. In some instances, the patient may experience less apnea episodes (which is a good thing), but then experience more snoring or additional negative effects. Investigation by scientists and professionals in the medical community has been conducted, especially over the past decade, to compare the effectiveness of CPAP versus other treatments like oral appliances. CPAP Machines At Work Before diving into the myriad of research projects scientists have carried out with obstructive sleep apnea individuals and CPAP technology, you have to first understand how CPAP works to get sleep apnea along with other symptoms, like snoring, under control. Most of the time in sleep apnea patients, the physiological cause of snoring and apnea episodes is due to the relaxation of muscles that occurs. This relaxation causes tissues at the back of the throat and the uvula to collapse, which ultimately restricts the passage of air. In turn, this has an effect on your breathing during the night. Whenever a CPAP machine is prescribed for a sleep apnea patient, they’re given a large machine in addition to a CPAP mask. What occurs during the night time is that the patient wears the mask, that is attached to the machine. The CPAP machine forces air — via the CPAP mask — using positive pressure that gets delivered to the airway to avoid its obstruction and enhance breathing. In addition to improving breathing, the CPAP mask and machine also reduces snoring. Research on CPAP Effectiveness The research conducted on CPAP machines have largely centered on their effectiveness for reducing snoring, apnea episodes and other symptoms related to obstructive sleep apnea. When you consider the entire body of research, you may conclude the CPAP is perhaps the most effective treatment on the market for OSA patients. However, there are downsides as well. Researchers at the university in Tokyo released a study in a 2004 issue of Internal Medicine in which they investigated the patient’s quality of life, depressive symptoms and excessive daytime sleepiness both before and after receiving treatment with a CPAP machine. Before treatment with CPAP, scientists found that patients’ total well being was significantly linked to the ratings on their self-depression scales. Soon after treatment, however, self-depression scales reduced significantly as also did the excessive sleepiness scale scores. The researchers concluded that treatment of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea with CPAP improves patients’ quality of life by alleviating depression. Being treated with a CPAP machine at home also offers great benefits for ones relationship with a spouse or bed partner. Researchers at a university in Chicago, Illinois, published a 2007 study in the American Academy of Sleep Medicine where they examined the sleep of married couples, in both the laboratory and at home. The researchers measured both the husband’s and wives’ quality of life (QOL) using a unique self-report scale, and in addition they required the individuals to take a sleepiness scale. While the husband’s adjustment to being treated with CPAP was positive and also raised his QOL scores, the same was not true for the wives. Whether it was the noise from the machine or simply being conditioned to arousal, the wives’ QOL scores were less than the husband’s after being treated with CPAP. In other words, the husband adjusted better to receiving treatment with CPAP than the wives’ did. However, researchers conclude that a longer follow-up period is required in further research to determine if similar effects are seen.

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Article by alisha smith

Sleep apnea is caused by an obstruction in the nasal air passage. An individual who has sleep disorder often snores while sleeping, which normally is the fist sign to detect a person has sleep apnea. Snoring is caused by a breathing obstruction, which stops the air flow in the nose and mouth. Aside from being an annoying and noisy problem, sleep disorder can branch out to several other problems which can be disadvantageous to the person with apnea

People who suffer from either lesser or severe forms of this illness know that sleep apnea cures are critical. There are two basic forms of apnea: central and obstructive. Obstructive sleep apnea can be treated through surgery, as breathing is interrupted by a physical block to the air flow.

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If you suffer from sleep apnea, you should already be familiar with CPAP breathing machines and sleep apnea mouthpieces. The main problem with these devices is that people stop using them because of their inconvenience and discomfort. For this reason, you might be looking into surgery for sleep apnea.

Surgery for sleep apnea becomes necessary when the condition begins to create a negative impact on your quality of life. The impact may be relatively minor, such as a sore throat, or it can be more serious like as constant and severe fatigue that prevents the fulfillment of daily obligations.

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About five minutes later Allan suddenly seemed to choke, wake up, turn around and go back to sleep. Weird! It was as if nothing had happened at all – he just went right back to sleep. The next morning when mentioned what I heard and saw, he seemed surprised. Are you kidding me? He asked. No, I said and told him to make an appointment with our doctor right away. “There must be a bone stuck in your throat” I said and added, “Can you feel it somewhere?” “Bone in my throat? No I don’t think so” he said and added, “Apart from feeling sleepy and tired I’m quite okay”.

Our family doctor heard me out patiently and asked me a few questions like does Allen snore, does he frequently complain of being sleepy during the day time, does he complain of being tired, or having headaches in the morning? I told the doctor that Allan does not snore but my answer to all other questions would have to be “yes”. The doctor peered and poked into Allen’s nose and throat and finally said he was referring him to a throat specialist. To make a long story short, a week and several tests later which included an overnight stay in a sleep center, Allan was diagnosed with Central sleep apnea. The doctor was kind enough to explain to us what Central sleep apnea was.

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Im getting a surgery done, and before hand, my surgeon wants to know that I dont have sleep apnea, (stopping breathing during sleep/surgery) so they sent me to a sleep lab. I went in at 8PM…they wired me up…..I watched TV…..it didnt really wind me down that much…so I began to read…(which normally knocks me right out)….and when Im at HOME..right after reading i’ll turn the light off…then do a SELF Quickie….and go to sleep…well at the study…I was thinking to myself….Goodness come on now…there are plenty of nights that I dont masturbate…i’ll be fine tonight…but then 11PM hit…and then it began pushing 12Midnight… I had paid over $1,000 for this study, I HAD to go to sleep, b/c I dont want to return and repay…so I did the ONLY thing I could that would put me to sleep….I did it mostly without any movement (I am good at this hehe) I am just curious because I was having an EKG, through testing, would they be able to know I was up to ‘no good”????? The sleep tech was a woman my age, mid 20′s…and cool as heck, so really I dont care…im just wondering if they could tell through reading my body and mind was up to something….???

(b/c the sleep tech passes the test results on to a few other people … docs/etc) Thanks !!

I have been a sleep walker for a long time. I get up in the nite and mess around in the bathroom. Walk around the house and actually lately I have been pretty busy at nite. I sometimes wake up in the middle of my activites, and sometimes I wake up and realize I did something stupid.
One of the doctors I work with believes I may have sleep apnea because he says I “look” like someone with sleep apnea. He says he can see it in my neck area. I can see my adams apple and granted since I am 43, my cheeks have gotten fat, but I would not consider my neck overly fat.
He says sleep apnea is a major cause of sleep walking in adults and he believes I should go for a sleep study. I have never been able to sleep in strange places. I usually sleep about 7 or sometimes 6 hours a nite. I am a pretty uptight personality.
Do you know anything about this? I am a nurse, but never really have dealt with this condition and would like some information. Its really freaking me out.

Current taking dexamphetamine for sleep apnea, but causes extreme weight loss want something natural, doctors thinks ritalin but dont want to go there.

The snoring can keep you awake.It can be cause for concern due to sleep apnea (can cause or lead to erectile dysfunction, high blood pressure, heart attack, diabetes, drowsy driving, ability to concentrate.) Have a sleep study done. It can save your life.

I’m a big guy and I know that affects it. I want to die peacefully in my sleep, but I’d prefer it happened in my 90′s. Any ideas on treatments? I want to get back on an excercise routine (I used to be an athlete), but that’s hard when you are dead tired all the time. Anyone else know the feeling?