People who snore are usually the last to know. It may take some gentle nudging from a bed partner, or a little teasing around the breakfast table before you realize you’ve joined the millions of Americans sawing away each night. In some cases, however, what you don’t know (or can’t hear) may hurt you. While snoring is often a natural result of aging, it may also signal an underlying sleep disorder.

When diagnosing sleep disorders, doctors often come face to face with the limits of self-reported symptoms. You often either can’t remember or regularly sleep through your most obvious symptoms, like snoring. But you can keep a diary of general sleep patterns (like when you go to sleep each night) and also daytime symptoms like extreme fatigue — all things that you can observe yourself. This diary, along with a physical exam and complete medical history, will help your doctor decide if you need a sleep study to diagnose your problem.

Symptoms of chronic lack of sleep include the following:

• Extreme fatigue
• Irritability
• Difficulty concentrating
• Impaired memory
• Decreased eye-hand coordination
• Depression

If a sleep disorder develops slowly over time, you may get used to operating in a sleep-deprived state. Even though your symptoms may be severe, you may fail to notice them. Or, you may notice individual symptoms but not realize they are all sleep-related. Put your symptoms down in black-and-white, and both you and your doctor will gain a clearer picture of your sleep patterns.

Bed partners and family members

A bed partner or family member may be an expert observer of your symptoms during sleep. In fact, many sleep specialists make a point of interviewing a patient’s bed partner about sleep habits and symptoms. The National Sleep Foundation advises bed partners and family members to watch out for these:

• Loud, frequent snoring. Snoring and gasping for breath often punctuate the end of a sleep apnea episode. In particular, pay attention to the sound and pattern of the snoring. Steady, regular snoring is often normal, but sudden, loud outbursts may indicate sleep apnea. Remember, not everybody who snores has sleep apnea, but many people who have sleep apnea also snore.
• Interrupted breathing. Sleep apnea is defined as multiple episodes of interrupted breathing that last for 10 seconds or longer.
• Moaning or mumbling throughout the night. Repeated interruptions prevent problem sleepers from reaching stages of deeper sleep. Talking in your sleep is usually associated with the lightest, least restorative stages of sleep. In other words, you’re not getting the deep sleep you need for normal daily functioning.
• Body movements. People who have sleep apnea or nocturnal asthma jerk awake when they don’t get enough air. The awakenings are usually so brief that the sleeper can’t remember them in the morning.
• Wheezing, coughing, and other asthma symptoms. As with sleep apnea, people who have nocturnal asthma often don’t recall having an episode during the night.

Do you normally sleep alone but fear you might be at risk? Short of having a full-blown sleep study, you can ask a family member or devoted friend to act as your personal sleep monitor. A few hours of observation may yield the information your doctor needs to diagnose your condition.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 18th, 2007 at 4:24 am and is filed under Sleeping & Snoring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.