Sleep Apnea

What Happens at a Sleep Clinic?

Have you been having trouble sleeping? If you go to your doctor, they may recommend seeing a sleep specialist. And getting a sleep study conducted. But what happens at a sleep clinic? You can ask for some information from your Doctor. However, they may not know enough to put you at ease.

It’s perfectly normal to be nervous and a bit uneasy about sleep studies. You’re not alone, many uncertain feelings swirl around the minds of new sleep clinic patients.

In this article, we are going to ease your mind about what happens at a sleep clinic and what sleep specialists do during your study. Your new awareness will make your experience much more tolerable and keep your anxiety low.

So, let’s get started by finding out exactly why your Dr. would recommend a sleep specialist in the first place.

When Is A Sleep Specialist the Best Decision?

If you have been trouble sleeping for at least 3 weeks,it’s time to see your doctor. Deciding to see a sleep doctor will depend on what disorder you doctor thinks you have. There are up to over 80 sleep disorders documented but we will discuss the 4 most common.

If your primary doctor suspects you have, Insomnia, Sleep Apnea, Narcolepsy, and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). These four disorders can severely harm your overall health if left untreated. This is when you will receive a referral to see a sleep specialist.

Note: Sleepwalking is another disorder that many suffer from that sleep specialist study and treat.

Let’s briefly go over the top 4 sleep disorder.

  1. Insomnia – This is a sleeping disorder where you do not sleep, your body and mind are tired, but you cannot fall asleep for long periods of time.
  2. Narcolepsy – This is when you can fall asleep at any time. If you are in a relaxing position you can fall asleep, even while driving a car or operating heavy machinery. It is sudden.
  3. Sleep Apnea – This is a disorder the causes you to stop breathing as you sleep, it can happen because of physiological characteristics like weight, neck circumference, or abnormally small airway. It can also be from a neurological disorder when your brain and nervous system don’t communicate during sleep.
  4. Restless Leg Syndrome – This is a condition that causes an uncontrollable sensation to move your legs, this usually happens because of feeling uncomfortable in some way. Happens primarily in the evenings when resting.

What is A Sleep Specialist?

It is common that sleep specialists are in the psychology or medical field respectively. They normally hold degrees such as Ph.D., MD, or DO and also hold the esteemed credential from the American Board of Sleep Medicine.

These medical professionals focus on sleeping disorders and use special techniques to determine what is happening to you as you sleep.

In a later section, we uncover exactly what happens at a sleep clinic when a sleep study is done.

Based on your symptoms and your explanation to your Dr about not getting enough sleep to feel well-rested. And having lower energy and focus throughout your day. Your primary care physician, internist, or family doctor will send you to a sleep specialist to get further details about the sleeping disorder.

What Happens When You See a Sleep Specialist?

The sleep study is a noninvasive exam done overnight. This study allows doctors to monitor what happens to you as you sleep and monitor your brain activity. It is common to go to a sleep clinic and meet with your specialist. You can set up for an overnight stay at the sleep clinic, and in some cases, you can do a sleep study from the comfort of your own home.

When you go to see a sleep doctor, they will begin the appointment with a series of questions that funnel down to a specific purpose. They are trying to see if your symptoms qualify you for a specific type of sleeping test. This test is called a polysomnogram and it’s given to help diagnose what your brain waves are doing when you sleep.

That’s not all. You also have other electrodes placed all over your body in various areas. A total of 25 to be exact. The electrodes not only monitor your brainwaves. But, eye movement, muscle twitching, chest wall movement, and airflow as you breathe through your nose and mouth.

The Atmosphere

If you choose to sleep at the clinic you will be given a room that is comfortable, dark, and decorated like a bedroom, normally you are asked to come a few hours before your bedtime. You can bring anything you want that makes you feel comfortable as you sleep.

Just before you go to bed, the sleep study technician places the electrodes we talked about earlier. The electrodes don’t hurt in any way and you still have enough room to move comfortably in your bed.

Polysomnographic technology specialists will monitor you as you sleep throughout the night. Just in case you need to use the bathroom or something else you made need. The technologist gathers all the information and gives it to the dr.

Next Steps

Now that you know what happens at a sleep clinic what happens next?

Well, first the doctor will review your test, you normally will make a follow-up appointment for 2 weeks out. So,you’re the sleep doctor can review the test and come up with a diagnosis if there is one.

On your follow up visit your sleep doctor will discuss your results, the diagnosis, and their recommendations. For example, if you are diagnosed with sleep apnea you will then be fitted and ordered a mask. At Sleep Better Columbus, you will be given one on one professional and caring attention.

The services and options available for sleep apnea are endless. You can find a CPAP device that will be comfortable, and affordable. You can also select an Oral Appliance that doesn’t evolve a mask or a machine (for OSA only).

 

Dr. Levy has been servicing the Columbus area for years and welcomes you to call and set an appointment. If you are suffering from any of the disorders mentioned above. If you’re feeling sluggish, have a lack of energy after sleeping, or your doctor recommends you see sleep specialist call (614) 362-7292 today.

 

What Happens When You Have Sleep Apnea

Have you been having a difficult time sleeping lately? You may say to yourself it’s just stress, or snoring runs in your family and shrugs it off. But you can be making a big mistake, you can have sleep apnea and if you don’t know what happens when you have sleep apnea you need to read this entire article.

Sleep apnea is a serious medical condition that affects your breathing pattern as you sleep. This is a chronic disorder that so many people have, but 80% go undiagnosed, which causes further medical problems leading to chronic disorders that cause premature death.

So, if your partner tells you to snore, or you have difficulty breathing at night when you sleep, or you just can’t seem to get through the day without feeling like you have no energy to continue on, you might have sleep apnea.

This article is going to tell you what happens in your body when you have sleep apnea, what causes it, who’s at risk for it, and how you can get help from a specialist.

What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a disorder that prevents you from breathing as you sleep. The word apnea means “no breathing”. When you’re diagnosed with sleep apnea there can be 3 different categories of sleep apnea you will find yourself in. After you find out the type of sleep apnea you have, it then is determined if it’s a mild, moderate or severe.

The three types of sleep apnea are:

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

These types of sleep apnea have a category of mild, moderate, or severe depending on your results from testing. We will talk about testing later.

Now you know what sleep apnea is, let’s learn a little bit about causes it.

What Causes Sleep Apnea?

The types of sleep apnea are caused by three separate reasons, they each work differently and must be handled specifically to the type.

For instance, Obstructive Sleep Apnea is caused by relaxation of the throat muscles as you sleep, this causes your airway to be blocked. This obstructs airflow partially or entirely.

Central Sleep Apnea occurs when communication between the brain and the central nervous system has a problem communicating when you are sleep. Moreover, because you’re not told to breathe you are holding your breath until you gasp for air.

The last type of sleep apnea is mixed. This happens to be a combination of OSA and CSA. This is the most severe.

Some easy to recognize symptoms are:

  1. Headaches first thing in the morning
  2. Snoring so loud you wake yourself up or others
  3. Excessive sleepiness during the day
  4. An inability to focus on tasks during the day

These are just a few, there are many more, speak with your primary care doctor if you are experiencing these symptoms.

Who is at Risk for Sleep Apnea?

Just like anything health-related, there are risk factors that increase your chances of having sleep apnea, so you must pay attention so you can see the signs and get help if needed.

A study showed that 4% of men and 2% of women have sleep apnea however only about 10% seek help and treatment. This leaves so many people vulnerable to long-term health problems because of sleep apnea.

Risk Factors

Obstructive sleep apnea:

  • Being a male but as mentioned early women can have OSA to, higher likelihood after menopause.
  • Being an older adult, OSA happens more commonly in older people.
  • Family history plays a huge role if your family member has it you are at risk
  • Smoking increases your risk by more than 3 times what it would be if you did not smoke
  • Nasal problems increase chances, whether allergies or anatomical issues, this increases the risk.

Central Sleep Apnea:

  • Age plays a part, being older is a risk factor
  • Having a heart disorder increases your risk. For example, CHF (congestive heart failure).
  • Using narcotics and opioid medication can easily suppress the nervous system which increases the risk for CSA. For example, Methadone would increase the risk.

What is happening inside your body?

It’s time to discuss what’s happening inside your body when you have sleep apnea. As we said earlier sleep apnea stops you from breathing as you sleep. This begins to cut the oxygen supply to your brain.

Now we both know how important oxygen is for your brain. Studies show that after just 60 seconds of no oxygen to the brain, the damage is done that permanently alters the brain’s chemistry. When you are sleeping you may hold your breath for 10 seconds, 20 seconds or more.

As your brain becomes deprived of oxygen your heart works harder, increases blood pressure, and putting stress on your heart. You are also holding on to carbon dioxide which causes your blood to thicken over time, causing increase strain on the heart and poor circulation throughout the body.

Clots can form because of thinking blood, which can cause a stroke and ischemia (decrease blood flow throughout an organ) causing a heart attack or tissue death elsewhere in the body.

How Are You Diagnosed?

The best way to get diagnosed is to talk to your primary care physician about your sleeping patterns and how you feel throughout the day.

Loss of memory, being irritable, and insomnia are more symptoms that would help your doctor understand your situation. If your doctor wants to know more, he will refer you to a sleep specialist.

A skilled sleep specialist often is an MD specializing in the art of sleep medicine, and sleep disorders.

What You Can Expect from a Sleep Study

After being asked some questions by the sleep specialist, and you meet the requirements for a sleep study, you schedule a time to return a technician will put electrodes on your head and body. This monitors your brain waves, the increase of your chest wall as you sleep, and your airflow through your nose and mouth.

After your sleep study, your sleep doctor will view the results. They will diagnose you, giving you the next steps on how to improve your sleep. That can be through CPAP, Oral Appliance, or something else.

In Conclusion

Sleep apnea is serious, you learned what it is, how it can affect your body, and the risk factors involved. Sleep Better Columbus, Dr. Levy, and staff are here for. If you are suffering from sleep apnea or are unsure, we can help.

Speak with your physician to get a referral and let us help you. Or just give us a call at (614) 362-7292. We can answer any questions you may have about how sleep studies work. Knowing what happens when you have sleep apnea gives you the advantage to get help right now, so be like the other people walking around ignoring the signs. Use your awareness and improve your health today. Call us at (614) 362 – 7292.

What Health Problems Can Sleep Apnea Cause?

What health problems can sleep apnea cause? Questions like these are asked by sleep study specialist. Doctors that focus on the disorders that interrupted sleep cause.

There are several thousand people around the globe that have sleeping disorders that wreak havoc on their bodies. Causing disease, stress, and other accidents that affect the people around them. You can be one of these people experiencing symptoms and promoting unforeseen health conditions indirectly and not even realize it.

In this article, you will learn what problems in your health sleep apnea will cause or worsen and what steps you can take to make sure you stop these disorders from getting worse or manifesting.

With this in mind, let’s begin with an overview of what sleep apnea is and then merge into how you can recognize the way you’re feeling, common symptoms sleep apnea causes, and how you can get the help you need.

 Do You Suffer from Sleep Apnea?

Getting the help, you need starts with knowing the answers to the questions you have. Ironically you may suffer from sleep apnea and pawn it off as just a poor night’s rest. The word apnea literally means without breath. As a result, sleep apnea is the loss of breathing as you sleep. Knowing this you can see how serious this condition is.

You can suffer from 1 of 3 kinds of apnea:

  • Obstructive Sleep Apnea: This is when the muscles in your throat relax and your airway is obstructed (blocked) also called (OSA).
  • Central Sleep Apnea: This is a disconnect between your brain and your nervous system that signals you to breathe as you sleep (CSA).
  • Complex Sleep Apnea (Mixed): This form of sleep apnea is a combination of both OSA and CSA apnea disorders.

You can be suffering from one of these sleep disorders, you can stop breathing multiple times throughout the night. Consequently, the longer the apnea time lasts the more severe the case.

What about symptoms? How can you tell if sleep apnea is something you should worry about? In the next section, we briefly highlight some symptoms.

Do You Suffer from Sleep Apnea?

You might, and if you do this brief list will give you some evidence to move forward, in your research to get help. The symptoms can overlap between Central Sleep Apnea and Obstructive Sleep apnea. Keep in mind OSA is the most common predominately found in men.

Sleep Apnea Signs and Symptoms

  1. Difficulty staying focused or paying attention throughout the day.
  2. Waking up in the middle of the night, or from a nap gasping for air.
  3. Difficult time staying asleep or have insomnia.
  4. Morning headaches are often a reason of sleep apnea.
  5. Snoring excessively loud, interrupting partners or spouses from their rest.
  6. You are very irritable after you wake up.
  7. You have an extremely dry mouth when you wake up.
  8. Day time sleepiness is increased.

In this list we have given you a few of the most common symptoms, experiencing these symptoms is a sign you should see a sleep study specialist. The sleep study test At Sleep Better Columbus can gauge what your body is doing and select the best steps to take moving forward.

After all, the prevention of disease is just as important as maintenance.

Leading us into what sleep apnea can cause. The risk factors because of sleep apnea are high and a price you don’t want to pay. Let’s find out exactly what’s involved if sleep apnea goes untreated.

What Health Concerns Does Sleep Apnea Cause or Worsen?

Sleep apnea left untreated can affect anyone suffering from it. You are not exempt, if you have this chronic disorder and you ignore it, your health will deteriorate because of it. Being excessively overweight, a thick neck circumference, or an abnormally smaller airway are just a few risk factors associated with OSA.

Heart problems and high blood pressure – When you stop breathing your body is no longer receiving oxygen, this decrease in blood oxygen levels adds stress on your heart and causes it to increase your blood pressure OSA increases your chances of hypertension.

Liver problems – If you suffer from sleep apnea you can increase scarring on your liver.

A decrease in brain functions – Oxygen is essential for the brain, in an emergency a brain that is deprived of oxygen (Anoxia)  for 60 seconds or more experiences brain damage. And will never be the same again. Adding that up over hundreds of nights of sleep with apnea paints a horrific picture.  Loss of memory and other cognitive skills will suffer because of sleep apnea.

Type 2 Diabetes – Your risk for developing type 2 diabetes becomes higher, it’s been shown that sleep apnea reduces insulin resistance.

Cardiovascular Disease – Sleep apnea increases your risk or worsens cardiovascular disease. The fact is without oxygen in a constant flow, tissues of the body die. And the brain decides to only pump blood to the vital organs eliminating supply to those areas of the body that are less vital for sustaining life.

As you can see if you suffer from sleep disorders it doesn’t just give you a headache, it can and will affect your health over a lifetime.

In Conclusion

Fail to pay attention to how you feel and your sleeping patterns can severely impede your health, destroy a relationship and cause you to injure others because of lack of sleep if you’re operating a car or machinery at work. In this article you learned what sleep apnea is, and that there are three primary sleep disorders.

Secondly, you can see getting help is available to you through Sleep Better Columbus. Dr. Levy and the compassionate staff have been helping sufferers of sleep apnea and snoring for years with innovative and helpful technology.

This makes it easy for you to improve quickly. And even get a sleep study done in the comfort of your own home. Give them a call at (614) 362-7292 and let them invite you into a one on one relationship that caters to your needs. What can sleep apnea cause is a frightening question?  But you don’t have to find the answers alone.

How Do I Know I Have Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a chronic sleeping disorder where breathing is consistently interrupted. This occurs due to human anatomy problems or because of central nervous system disconnections involving your respiratory system. But how do you know if you have sleep apnea?

This is what this article is going to uncover. There are millions of people living in the U.S that have sleep apnea and you can be one of them. Learning how to pinpoint what symptoms you may be suffering from will give you the awareness to get the help you may so desperately need to prevent further medical deterioration.

Let’s start with what many fall victim too and that is the symptoms.

The Symptoms of Sleep Apnea and How They Are Ignored

We are all busy, and we also tend to make things no big deal. Well, sleep apnea is a very big deal. To be fair, most people have no idea what sleep apnea is. And if you don’t know what it is then how do you know you have it?

The dilemma that plagues over 22 million Americans living with OSA (Obstructive sleep apnea). This can be scary to think about right? Another interesting fact is out of this large group of people around 80% are undiagnosed. Meaning with the knowledge and awareness of this chronic disorder is going to drastically improve your quality of life once properly treated if, in fact, you do have OSA.

Before we list the most common symptoms you need to know that if you have sleep apnea it can be any of the three types. Earlier we discussed obstructive sleep apnea. This is the most common. There is the second type of central sleep apnea (CSA) this affects your sleep health severely.

Central sleep apnea means your nervous system and respiratory system fail to communicate when you are asleep. Or communicates poorly, is the sense you breath shallow, or hold your breath ever second or third breath.

The last type is complex sleep apnea that mixes both OSA and CSA. This is the most severe because your upper airway and nervous system are compromised. Consequently causing your health to plummet in more than one way.

Symptoms

Hypersomnia – Excessive daytime drowsiness, if you constantly find yourself tired or always yawning it means your brain is not receiving enough oxygen because of shallow breathing. Which extends to when you sleep.

Headaches first thing in the morning – You should wake up refreshed and ready for the day with energy. If you have a morning headache it means you did not sleep well. Happening consistently is a clear sign of sleep apnea.

Insomnia – When you have difficulty staying asleep you have a sleeping disorder. Not getting a healthy amount of sleep causes stress on the heart, and brain to perform without energy and the proper recovery time you need daily. If you can’t sleep you need to be tested for sleep apnea.

Snoring Loudly – If you snore, this means there is blockage of your airway because of a change in your anatomy of the airway. This is a very common symptom for OSA.

Waking up feeling confused – Waking up confused in the middle of the night is also a symptom of OSA. You also have a tendency to wake up gasping for air because of holding your breath while sleeping.

Not Breathing During Sleep – This is observed by someone else as you sleep. They may notice your chest is not rising consistently.

Difficulty focusing while awake – Being able to focus clearly on a task is necessary for safety if you working with machinery, or if your driving. If you have trouble focusing you need to consult your physician.

How You are Diagnosed With Sleep Apnea

So we talked about the most common symptoms of sleep apnea. What next? If you feel you have any of these symptoms what should you do? If you want to get the help you first need to set up an appointment with your primary care physician. Go see them, tell them about your concerns about not sleeping, and most likely you will receive a referral to a sleep doctor.

These are doctors that specialize in sleep medicine and sleeping disorders. Depending on your medical insurance you may not need a referral, but it’s always good to get a full check-up to make sure there are no other underlying issues.

Once you are in front of a sleep study doctor they will ask you a series of questions. Once the criteria are met for a sleep study, you will be given an appointment. And specific instructions on when to arrive for your sleep study.

The sleep study is a test that monitors your chest wall moment as you sleep, along with how much air is released from your nose and mouth during slumber. Your brain waves are also measured to check for neurological disconnect while sleeping. Consider doing research on sleep studies before you arrive for your appointment so you are not overly nervous.

Sleep study technician make you feel comfortable and explain everything during the setup. You will have electrodes attached to your head, arms, chest, and legs. Which helps to monitor heart rate as well.

The Results

When your sleep study is completed you will set an appointment for about 1-2 weeks away. This will give your sleep doctor the time to evaluate your sleep test, checking for symptoms of hypopneas (holding your breath) and shallow breathing. Also, your sleep doctor will study your brain waves and heart rate throughout the night.

Once your test has been completely reviewed, you will get your results and at that time find out if you have sleep apnea. Moreover, you will learn the type, whether it’s obstructive, central, or mixed. The doctor will also inform you if it’s mild, moderate, or severe in nature.

Sleep apnea poses several health risks and the consequences of not treating it can be severe. Hypertension, heart failure, and cardiovascular disease are just a few chronic conditions that can be provoked because of sleep apnea.

In Conclusion

As you learned above, if you have sleep apnea it’s very important to be properly treated. This avoids further stress and problems with your health that OSA can cause. Dr. Levy and the staff of Sleep Better Columbus will guide you every step of the way.

OSA is extremely easy to treat. There is no need to be afraid. What you don’t want is to let this chronic condition linger.

And with state of the art equipment and Oral Appliances; you have access to the experience Better Sleep Columbus provides their patients. This eliminates promoting further deterioration of your health and gives you several options to remain comfortable during your sleep apnea treatment.

Better Sleep Columbus welcomes your call. Reach out today at (614) 362-7292.

What Does Sleep Apnea Cause

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder viewed by many as something minor and not much to worry about. But when you look beneath the surface and ask what does sleep apnea cause, astonishing details are revealed. As a result, in the past few years, this myth has been busted. And sleep apnea has become a widely popular topic. Why? Because of what life-threatening diseases it can cause or worsen.

However, there is so much more work to be done in spreading the word. In this article, we are going to go over some of the disorders that can manifest because of sleep apnea and how ignoring the signs and symptoms can cause more harm. You will learn how to recognize these symptoms and what you can do to get treated.

Sound good? Great… Let’s get started.

Sleep Apnea and Common Disorders It Can Cause

There are over 800 sleep disorders, but sleep apnea is the one more common in the United States. And has become a significant reason for health issues. It’s been confirmed that over 22 million Americans grapple with sleep apnea every night.

About 1 out of every 12 Americans suffer and are inadvertently encouraging future healthcare complications because of sleep apnea when it’s left undiagnosed and treated. And sadly, undiagnosed sleep apnea is the truth for 80% of cases.

So how do you avoid falling victim to perpetual healthcare decline from sleep apnea? You do so, by becoming aware and following the steps to get diagnosed and then treated by a sleep study doctor such Dr. Levy of Sleep Better Columbus. After all, if you suffer from sleep apnea you want someone who can improve your quality of life quickly and make things comfortable for you.

Common Disorders Sleep Apnea Promotes

Asking what does sleep apnea cause, but the greatest minds in sleep medicine to work. It’s only when the right questions are asked that the solution of the best treatment for a problem gets solved. Here is a list of the most common diseases affiliated with sleep apnea.

  • High Blood Pressure (hypertension)
  • Chronic Heart Failure (CHF)
  • Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)
  • Stroke (loss of blood flow to the brain)
  • Depression
  • Type-2 Diabetes
  • Liver Problems
  • Excessive Day Time Fatigue

As you can see, the list above is filled with serious life-threatening conditions and can cause life long consequences if discovered too late.

For example, how much would your life change if you fell asleep at the wheel? Or you drifted off to sleep as you were cooking something on the stove? These mistakes happen every single day because of sleep apnea. If you experienced either one these, how would your life be different?

Worsening Disorders

When you are already suffering from a disease or disorder like chronic heart failure obstructive sleep apnea will make it significantly worse. See when you fail to breathe as you sleep, you cause your co2 (aka) carbon monoxide to build up in your blood. As you breathe regularly moving oxygen and co2 in and out of your body you naturally retain some co2. But people who have sleep apnea have less oxygen in their blood and higher co2 levels.

This creates your blood to become thicker and also stunt the receptors in your body that tell your brain to breathe when sleeping. This causes more stress on the heart to work harder and harder, attempting to bring back homeostasis. Unfortunately without treatment of your sleep apnea, you remain in a vicious cycle of deterioration.

The only way to fix it is with help from a sleep doctor who can properly treat your individual case with the right positive pressure treatment or oral appliance treatment. It all depends on your type of sleep apnea.

This is only one case study of a worsening disorder. There are several outcomes base on the disease that sleep apnea can worsen.

Common Risk Factors To Sleep Apnea

Gender – Middle-aged and older men are more likely to acquire sleep apnea. Sleeping disorder breathing affects almost 50% of men and only 24% of women.

Note: Smoking drastically increases the risk of sleep apnea regardless of gender.

Obesity – There is a relationship between sleep apnea and obesity in around 60% of the cases that are diagnosed. Having a thicker neck because of larger fat deposits will instantly cause an increased risk of obstructing your airway.

Narrow airway – Conversely, being born with or having been in an accident that decreases your airway circumference, will also increase your risk for OSA.

Substance abuse – Using any sedatives or narcotics that impair the nervous system will increase your chances of sleep apnea, more so for CSA (Central Sleep Apnea). You must be careful when taking medications prescribed and know how your body will react.

Stroke – As we mentioned earlier, sleep apnea can cause a stroke. However, if you have already suffered from a stroke you are at a higher risk of acquiring this chronic disorder.

Having a family history – At times you will be predisposed to sleep apnea because it runs in your family. This doesn’t mean you’re destined for sleep apnea, it only means you must be vigilant in your awareness of how you are feeling. And paying attention to the symptoms of sleep apnea presents.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

Knowing what sleep apnea causes is part of the puzzle when piecing together the treatment and management of sleep apnea. Knowing how to pay attention to how you feel is also important. Here are some of the most common symptoms you can look out for – in your behavior or those close to you.

  1. Snoring loudly
  2. Chronic morning headaches
  3. Waking up in the middle of the night gasping for air
  4. Holding your breath in your sleep (observed by someone else)
  5. Lack of focus while awake
  6. Irritable
  7. Insomnia (or waking up multiple times throughout the night)
  8. When you wake up you have extremely dry mouth
  9. Exhaustion throughout the day

These are some common symptoms of sleep apnea. And ones to pay attention too for signs you may need to see a sleep study specialist like Dr. Levy from Sleep Better Columbus.

In Conclusion

By now we don’t have to convince you that your sleep health is a necessity for a safe and happy life. Dr. Levy has treated hundreds of patients suffering from sleep apnea. He uses sleep study methods that help diagnose your sleep apnea is a comfortable way. Then afterward sit’s down with you and discuss your best options on treatment.

You may need an affordable state of the art CPAP device, or you may decide to use an oral appliance. You see, with the oral appliance you are fitted for a mouthpiece that can make sleep apnea treatment a breeze. Let our professional team help you with your diagnosis and treatment to ensure you live a long and healthy life.

It’s no longer hard to be diagnosed and treated. You’re not alone. Take the knowledge and the awareness of sleep apnea and make sure you avoid the mistakes so many others fail to avoid. Dr. Levy and staff at Sleep Better Columbus welcome you to call us at (614) 362-7292. The answer to the question – what does sleep apnea cause? Has been answered. The only thing left for you to do is trust us to help.

How Common is Sleep Apnea?

Having trouble sleeping? You may ask yourself what is wrong. Why is it that I can’t sleep through the night? If you find yourself feeling even more tired after you wake up from your rest you might be suffering from a chronic disorder call sleep apnea. How common is sleep apnea anyway?

Sleep apnea is so common most people have it and don’t even realize it. This is very dangerous because untreated sleep disorders can lead to an infinite amount of other health concerns. Some we will go over a bit later. In this article, our goal is to explain the necessities you need to know about sleep apnea. How you can recognize symptoms in yourself and others. And find the help you need in order to receive testing and treatment.

Let’s get started.

What Is Sleep Apnea?

A big mistake you can make is ignoring that you are tired throughout the day or that you snore. Sleep apnea is a chronic medical condition that prevents you from breathing during sleep. It can be caused by a blockage in the airway because of relaxed muscles in the throat. Also, a more severe case is when breathing is prevented because of a lack of communication from the brain and the central nervous system to your respiratory system to breathe.

There is one more kind of sleep apnea out of the 3 types and that that is mixed sleep apnea. This is when you suffer from a combination of Central Sleep Apnea and Obstructive sleep apnea. Mixed Sleep Apnea is the most severe of the types. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common. And unfortunately the condition you may suffer from.

The Commonality of Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is made up of 3 types. That includes OSA (Obstructive sleep apnea), CSA (Central sleep apnea), and Mixed (Also known as Complex sleep apnea syndrome). So how common is sleep apnea?

In the U.S between 50 million and 70 million people have some kind of sleeping disorder. Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common. To be more specific between 3 and 7% of men have OSA while it’s a bit lower for women coming in between 2-5%. Sadly however this number for women is rising. As OSA is more common in middle-aged to older men, women are beginning to be recognized as suffering from this disorder.

To put this into perspective even further, there are 326 million people living in the United States. Out of that number, one out of every twelve suffers from OSA. That is 22 million people. And only a small percentage actually gets treatment, leaving the rest to harbor disease because of worsening sleep apnea symptoms without treatment (75 – 85% go undiagnosed).

More Statistics

Out of the U.S population, 10% have mild obstructive sleep apnea, around 3 ½ % have moderate sleep apnea, and around 4% suffers from severe OSA, also know as hypopnea which is the medical term for excessive shallow breathing, and lower than normal rate of breathing over a one minute period. Essentially you are failing to bring in enough oxygen while you rest causing abnormalities in your health.

Which brings us to the next area of discussion. How can you tell if you may be suffering from sleep apnea? There are symptoms that are most prevalent when involving sleep apnea.

Most Common Sleep Apnea Symptoms

Obstructive and Central sleep apnea have symptoms that are red flags that you need further testing in the form of a sleep study. These symptoms can be present both for OSA or CSA but your doctor will refer you for a sleep study either way.

  • Excessive day time drowsiness
  • Morning headaches after waking up
  • Waking up with large gasp for air
  • Insomnia (you don’t sleep for long, maybe a few hours a night)
  • Loud snoring (waking those in close proximity because of the noise)
  • Poor attention span and lack of focus
  • Uncomfortable dry mouth when you wake up

As you can see these are easy to spot and to notice in yourself. Now that you are aware of these common symptoms you can begin paying close attention to how you feel. These are but a small amount of symptoms so if you notice things like irritability and always needing that extra cup of coffee you might be suffering from sleep apnea. You should be able to make it through the day energetic and focused.

Some Common Risk Factors of Sleep Apnea

  • Family history
  • Being a male
  • Middle to older aged
  • Obesity
  • Nasal blockages or airway abnormalities
  • Smoking
  • Neurological disorders
  • Drug use (some narcotics will suppress the nervous system)

There are other risk factors but these are present in the common area of sleep apnea risk factors.

Treatment Options

When you are diagnosed with sleep apnea, you can there are a few ways to receive treatment. If you have central sleep apnea there are limitations to your options, since you will need a device to keep your airway open because of a neurological disconnection. But with OSA you can use a CPAP or an oral appliance offered by the office of Sleep Better Columbus.

This oral appliance is similar to a mouthpiece, that pulls your jaw forward. This eliminates the obstruction as you sleep creating a safe breathing canal that supports a normal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

In Conclusion

As you can see, sleep apnea is very common. After all, with over 80% of Americans not being diagnosed it’s more common than ever. Failing to get treatment will lead to health problems like stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and more. Being referred to a sleep study doctor such as Dr. Levy from the office of Better Sleep Columbus can improve your quality of life drastically.

The one on one attention and sleep study technology will easily help diagnose your kind of sleep apnea and then you will be given the best way to treat it.

Not knowing is the worst part. But this article answered the question, how common is sleep apnea? You not only learned how common, but also how dangerous this disorder is, how to recognize its most common symptoms and where you can go for help. If you feel you are suffering from sleep apnea and want to make sure call the office of Sleep better Columbus at (614) 362-7292.

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