Sleep Apnea Symptoms Can Often Be Hard To Identify
Sleep apnea is a very commonly seen sleep disorder that affects in excess of 12 million US citizens and today is as common as adult diabetes.
The most commonly seen form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea which, as the name indicates, results from an obstruction to your airways that produces difficulties with breathing. In addition, there is another form of sleep apnea referred to as central sleep apnea, in which your brain cannot control your breathing adequately during sleep. Many people also suffer from mixed sleep apnea, which is a mixture of both obstructive and central forms of the condition.
Sleep apnea symptoms can appear at any time and, while they are most commonly found in overweight men who are over the age of 40, they can be seen in men and women at any age and are increasingly being seen nowadays in children.
The most obvious symptom of sleep apnea is snoring which is unfortunately a difficult symptom to spot yourself and usually needs to be pointed out to you by your sleeping partner. There can be several reasons for snoring and snoring is not by itself a sign that you have sleep apnea. It is a fact however that most individuals with sleep apnea do snore.
The second most obvious symptom is abnormal daytime tiredness. With sleep apnea you sleep apnea you stop breathing many times during sleep and your body’s instinctive reaction to this is to arouse you just enough for you to begin breathing again, but not sufficiently for you to be aware of the fact that you are being awakened. The result is that your sleep is continually interrupted and extremely light and you do not enjoy the deep sleep which the body needs to recharge its batteries. As a result, over time, you find yourself becoming more and more tired and sleepy during the day.
Without treatment, the affects of sleep apnea will start to become increasingly evident and further symptoms will begin to appear. These could include headaches (especially early in the morning), petulance and possibly depression. You may also notice yourself starting to gain weight.
One of the not quite so obvious symptoms of sleep apnea is increased blood pressure which can result in a number of cardiovascular difficulties. This will be detected if you are one of the increasing number of people who are now monitoring their own blood pressure regularly at home but may not otherwise be spotted until you call in for a routine physical exam with your doctor.
Another increasingly common symptom is that of learning difficulties and difficultues with memory retention. Once again this is not something that is rasy to spot yourself but friends and family might well notice that you are not as fast on the uptake as you used to be.
A number of individuals with sleep apnea will notice a decline in sexual function and this may lead to impotency.
As with a lot of medical conditions individual symptoms by themselves could be a sign of just about anything. But, when you begin to see these symptoms alongside each onther then you ought to think about talking to your doctor and possibly consider being tested for sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea is just one of several sleep disorders which might or might not be connected including insomnia, jet lag, restless leg syndrome and narcolepsy.
