Snoring

Snoring will not wake the snorer up but it usually disturbs the one who sleeps beside the snorer and wake up from sleep. Snoring during sleep at night is frequent occurrence and getting common. People who snores usually does not suffer from any medical condition.

Snoring is not life threatening, most of it. However, serious or harsh snoring can prompt us to more serious sleeping disorders. The good thing is that people who suffer from snoring can reduce the risk of getting serious disease when they are snoring and sleep disorders can be diagnosed and treatable.

Snoring, sleep apnea and other sleeping disorders are curable and there are many remedies can be used to cure them.

Sleep

When you are sleeping, your body will relax the nerves and muscles to refresh them to continue the biological processes inside your body. This whole process similar to recharging the battery of your body, it supplies the physical and emotional renewal necessary for you. Sleep is an active and essential organized process for your life.

Our circadian rhythm affects our sleep pattern, this rhythm needs us to sleep for certain amount of time regularly. The regular 24-hour cycles of our body clock determines the quality and quantity of sleep. Different individuals may need different amounts of necessary sleep, but the similarity is the sleep needs to be free from any disruption.

8 hours of sleep a day is the most advantageous for people from result of research. Some can sleep lesser because they are managed to condition their brain and achieve highly effective sleep.

Remarks:

Deprivation of sleep may lead to several physical and mental disorders. Sleep is a crucial part of our survival. Most people need uninterrupted sleep for at least 8 hours each day. Unchecked sleep disorders need quick medical attention and diagnosis as they could become fatal.

Sleep Apnea

Apnea is originally from Greek. “Ap” means ‘without’ and “nea” means ‘breath’. Sleep apnea may happens 20 to 60 times within each hour while you are asleep. Sleep apnea means “discontinuance of breath”, if you are unable to breathe while you sleep and awakened to gasp for breath, you might suffer from sleep apnea. However, not to worry about it, sleep apnea can be diagnosed by monitoring your breathing when you sleep.

The presence of the cessation of breathing for more than 10 seconds occurring more than a few times during sleep is indicative of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea consists of apnoeic episode from 10 to 90 seconds where you stop breathing.

Many might have experienced different episodes in each hour of their nights. However, most people do not realize that is a problem and ignore it, don’t look for a treatment.

Three types of Sleep Apnea:

1.Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) 2. Mixed Sleep Apnea 3. Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Obstructive Sleep Apnea, the most common type of sleep apnea. This type of sleep apnea occurs due to your airway collapses and blocked by your tongue, throat muscles or fat tissue in the throat, uvula(the hanging tissue at the back of your throat), tonsils. You wake up because of your brain gets the signals that your breathing is blocked.

The risk of getting stroke, heart attack and other cardiovascular problem will be escalated as a result of the continual deprivation of oxygen during episode. Obstructive sleep apnea can cause narcolepsy (sudden lapse of consciousness) and excessive daytime sleepiness.

Causes of Obstructive Sleep apnea Obstructive Sleep apnea caused by the blockages or obstructions could be due to obesity, adenoids and large tonsils (particularly in children), irregular physical structure (larger tongue or uvula or narrow airways, etc) or weak muscles.

Other than that, allergies, excessive stress, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and constricted/ uncomfortable sleeping position could be the reasons that results in obstructive sleep apnea.

Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) is less common if compared to the rest. The symptoms are quite similar to obstructive sleep apnea, however there are extra symptoms i.e. body weakness, numbness of body parts, changes in your voice and difficulty in swallowing. Central Sleep Apnea (CSA) occurs when the breathing muscles stop temporarily when communication with your brain is disrupted.

Central sleep apnea can also causes excessive daytime sleepiness, lack of attentiveness, heart diseases, high blood pressure and irritability as similar as symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. There is also an after-effect such as Ondine’s curse where you will have continual difficulty to breath easily while sleeping.

Sufferer of central sleep apnea that lives at above the sea level or having heart attacks or brain injuries might even suffer apnoeic episode while they are wide-awake.

Causes of Central Sleep apnea could be due to neurodegenerative diseases, surgical complications, neurological disorders, strokes or even radiotherapy. There are also causes behind the occurrence of sleep apnea. For example:

1. Abnormal facial structure 2. The throat muscles and tongue relax a lot more than normal when you are asleep. 3. Uvula, fleshy tissue at the back of your throat also relaxes during your sleep. 4. Large tonsils and adenoids obstruct free flow of air through the nose and throat. 5. Weight gain 6. Age 7. Alcohol and drugs relax muscles of your breathing system 8. Smoking 9. Your genes 10. Nasal congestion due to allergies 11. Different diseases of thyroid glands like hypothyroidism, or neuromuscular diseases like acromegaly, or Down’s syndrome, Marfan’s syndrome, post-polio syndrome

Mixed Sleep Apnea consists of both central and obstructive sleep apnea. It occurs when both obstruction of the airways and improper functioning of brain.

Regular snorers inhale lot of air while snoring and it causes the inner soft tissue in your throat to lengthen. Overtime, this stretching may lead to obstruction of air movement.

If you are unable to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide due to breathing problem at night, it will affects the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body and because of that your brain tries to awaken you up to restart your breathing system.

The awakening is necessary and critical to save your life. Such awakening will activates your throat and tongue muscles and expand your airway. But, your sleep is disrupted from awakening and you feel sleepy the whole day through.

Sleep apnea is a condition which affects your daily living. It needs to be diagnosed and treated, the earlier the better. Read a guide on how to overcome the sleep apnea and free from drowsiness.