Do you often feel tired and groggy after a full night’s sleep? Do you find yourself nodding off at odd moments throughout the day — in the middle of a meeting at work, for example? Do you snore? If you answered “yes” to all three questions, you may have sleep apnea, a common disorder in which breathing is interrupted during sleep. An estimated 18 million Americans have sleep apnea, says the National Institutes of Health.

What exactly is sleep apnea?

Apnea is, simply put, the absence of breath. When you stop breathing during sleep, your body goes into emergency mode, forcing you to wake up and start breathing again. A person with sleep apnea stops breathing for more than 10 seconds — and often up to 20-30 seconds — at a time. This process can be repeated more than 300 times in a single night. Sleep apnea is more common in men than women and typically affects men who are middle-aged or older.

What could keep me from breathing at night?

There are three types of sleep apnea: obstructive, central, and some mixture of the two. Obstructive sleep apnea refers to a physical blocking of the airways. It’s usually associated with loud snoring, as your body struggles for breath. Being overweight can block your airways (excess fatty tissue in the throat can interfere with breathing). So can aging (loss of muscle tone can cause the windpipe to collapse). In children, enlarged tonsils are often a source of airway obstruction. Central sleep apnea is a neurological problem in which the brain fails to signal the lungs to take their next breath. Most people with sleep apnea have the obstructive type or some combination of obstructive and central sleep apnea.

Wouldn’t I remember if I were waking up so often?

Most people who have sleep apnea wake up only long enough to kick-start their breathing. You forget these nighttime interruptions the same way you forget turning off your alarm clock in the morning. You may not remember waking up repeatedly during the night, but your body never forgets. These frequent sleep interruptions interfere with your normal sleep cycle, preventing you from feeling well rested in the morning.

How can I tell if I have sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea is a potentially dangerous disorder. It should be diagnosed and treated by your doctor. To decide if you should seek medical advice, ask yourself (or your spouse, roommate, or bed partner) if you have any of these symptoms:

• Chronic, loud snoring
• Irregular breathing or gasping while asleep
• Chronic fatigue and irritability
• Morning headaches
• Memory loss
• Uncontrolled, jerky movements during sleep

Before diagnosing sleep apnea, your health care provider will likely proceed by ruling out other causes of airway obstruction.

What are the standard treatments for sleep apnea?

Research has shown that if you sleep on your side (not on your back), you can prevent airway blockage and significantly reduce obstructive sleep apnea. Avoid alcohol, sleeping pills, and other sedatives too. They can make your airway relax to the point of collapsing during sleep, or prevent you from awakening to take your next breath. And if you carry some extra pounds, you may benefit from losing weight. Talk to your doctor about the right weight-loss plan for you.

People who have obstructive sleep apnea can also alleviate their symptoms with a treatment called nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The device looks like an oxygen mask. It’s attached to a pump that uses air pressure to keep your airway clear, promoting continuous breathing throughout the night. Some people with severe sleep apnea may benefit from surgery to remove excess soft tissue in the back of the throat.

While snoring is often a source of jokes and barbs, remember that it can be a sign of a serious, but treatable, health problem. Talk to your doctor about it. There’s no need to lose sleep over snoring.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 7:20 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.