Sleep apnea
Sleep apnea (alternatively sleep apnoea) is a medical condition in which breathing is interrupted during sleep. Sleep apnea is more common amongst people who snore. It is a kind of dyssomnia.Most people with this sleep disorder have obstructive apnea, where the person stops breathing for a moment during sleep due to airway blockage. The sufferers usually resume breathing within a few seconds, but periods of as long as sixty seconds are not uncommon in serious cases. The basic cause is the relaxation of the muscles in the airway. As the brain senses the lack of oxygen, the sleeper automatically wakes up, and airway muscles open the airway, allowing breathing to resume but interrupting sleep.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs most commonly in men, and is exacerbated by obese.
Another, rather rare form is central sleep apnea, where a problem in the nervous system interrupts breathing. Overdoses of opiates, such as heroin, kill by inducing a severe central apnea.
Apnea can occur repeatedly during sleep. Frequent apnea reduces the oxygen supply to the brain. It also produces sleep deprivation, including drowsiness, fatigue, memory loss, and short attention span during waking hours, and even falling asleep unexpectedly, similar to narcolepsy. Serious apnea may cause brain damage, heart trouble or death.
In the past, the only way to diagnose the condition was to send the patient to a hospital to be observed with a camera and other equipment during sleep. With advances in portable electronics, patients are now sent home with a small electronic device that is strapped to a fingertip to measure the oxygen content of the blood. The procedure is called pulse oximetry. It is non-intrusive because only the color of the finger need to be monitored. Recordings of blood oxygen saturation during sleep indicate the severity of the problem.
The primary form of treatment for obstructive apnea is a breathing machine that pumps a controlled stream of air through a face mask, forcing open the relaxed muscles. This allows uninterrupted sleep to take place. The most common is the continuous positive airway pressure ("CPAP") machine, which delivers a low level constant air pressure to the nose and sometimes the mouth. Other variations, such as bi-PAP, can deliver varied levels of pressure by monitoring breathing patterns. While the face mask can make some sufferers hesitant to try treatment, many if not most find that the initial difficulty of adapting to the machine is quickly surpassed by improved, deeper sleep.
Surgery is sometimes used to treat less severe cases; this involves removal of the tonsils, adenoids, portions of the soft palate, and/or the back of the tongue. A new treatment uses a probe in the nasal cavity to irradiate the soft tissues with radio waves. The airway open up after the swelling subsides. The procedure is too new to show any long term side effects, though it is believed that the radio waves are harmless to the patient.
Some call Sleep Apnea the invisible monster, as it works against sufferers while they are powerless to fight it.