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Sleep Apnea

If you're having trouble staying awake while reading this article, then you might have trouble sleeping.

People who feel exhausted during the day may suffer from a sleep disorder called sleep apnea. This form of interrupted sleep affects about 2 percent of middle-aged women and 4 percent of middle-aged men. It can have harmful consequences.

The body needs sleep for rest and rejuvenation. If your sleep is disrupted or you do not get enough sleep, you'll be less alert during the day, which increases your risk of work-related or driving accidents. Lack of sleep can also have more direct consequences for your health, such as increasing the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.

The most common type of sleep apnea is called obstructive sleep apnea. It is caused by relaxation of soft tissue in the back of the throat that blocks the passage of air.

One of the chief causes of obstructive sleep apnea is being overweight or obese. The weight of an obese chin presses down on what is already a narrow airway to begin with. But thin people with narrow windpipes can get apnea, too. In part, it's also a sign of aging, as the muscles simply become loose.

It's often the bed partner who notices the chief symptom of sleep apnea: noise. The reason the partner will notice is because of what happens to the other person's breathing -- or rather, snoring. What makes apnea different from snoring is that in apnea, the windpipe narrows so much that the person simply stops breathing for several seconds. This disruption prevents the sufferer from getting high-quality sleep.

Many snorers have apnea. There is first the distinctive, rhythmic snoring sound. There's the regular snore -- then a pause. The person has stopped breathing. Then the air rushes back in with a distinctive, loud snort, and then a breath. Many people do this a few times an hour, and that's OK if they feel all right in the morning. But apnea needs treatment if the person stops breathing dozens of times an hour, and wakes up exhausted.

Often, people with sleep apnea do not know they have a sleep disorder. They only know they wake up wishing that they could go back to bed. They may also not get enough sleep to begin with. They may assume their problem is that they need more sleep, and take naps in the afternoon or sleep extra long hours on weekends. But the real problem is their quality of sleep.

The first thing to do if you think you have apnea or any other sleep disorder is to discuss the matter with your physician. He or she may refer you to a sleep specialist. The sleep specialist will interview you. If the sleep disorder is affecting your life or threatening your health, you may be invited into a sleep lab.

There, you'll be connected to monitors and fall asleep in a comfortable bedroom. Staff will measure everything from your breathing and brain waves to the tone of your chin muscles. As you doze, they'll diagnose you.

If you are found to have sleep apnea, treatment will focus on restoring regular breathing during sleep and relieving your symptoms. Treatment also may help other medical problems linked to sleep apnea. Depending on the severity of the condition, your doctor may recommend lifestyle changes (such as losing weight, quitting smoking, and avoiding alcohol or certain medicines before bed), mouthpieces, breathing devices, and/or surgery. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is a common treatment for moderate to severe sleep apnea. For CPAP, you wear a face mask attached to a tube that blows pressurized air into the mask and keeps the airway open while you sleep.