Sleep Apnea Symptoms And Treatments

2007-07-15 Word Count: 466 Category: Health & Fitness

Were you aware that as many as 1 out of 15 people in the USA suffer from sleep apnea disorder?. This number could actually be much higher, but lots of cases are never reported, which means they are never being treated. Possibly one out of 50 Amercians suffer from sleep apnea and do not actually know it.

Let's take a closer look at sleep apnea disorder and how you can detect it. Here are some of the symptoms of sleep apnea:

- Snoring - nearly everyone with sleep apnea snores, but not everyone who snores has sleep apnea. Snoring occurs when there is an blockage of air through mouth and nose.
- Gasping for breath while sleeping - many people with sleep apnea stop breathing anywhere form 5 times an hour and upwards. in severe cases they may stop breathing up to 50 times an hour. Lack of oxygen can cause all kinds of other problems that start because of your apnea.
- Tiredness during the day - if you are always tired during the day and never feel like you are getting a proper night's sleep. This is hard to explain because you think you are getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.
- Falling asleep during the day - If you fall asleep during the day when you should be awake you may suffer from sleep apnea.
- Memory Problems - If you have memory problems it could be a sign of not getting enough quality sleep.
- Shortness of breath, headaches, or chest pain.
- Having to physically be woken up to get you to breathe.

There are some things you can do to help if think you have sleep apnea:

- Use strips on your nose, such as Breathe Right, to help hold open your air passages.
- Improve your in health in general. For example, if you are overweight you may have trouble sleeping so it may help to lose some weight.
- Stop Smoking and cut down on alcohol consumption as these can also have a detrimental effect on sleep apnea disorder.
- Treat Allergies - If you have any allergies and have trouble breathing getting the allergies treated can help.
- Try to go to bed and get up at regular times - people who have irregular sleeping patterns due to work or leading an active night life can suffer from sleep apneal.

Sleep apnea disorder can have an impact your whole life. Being tired will also affect your judgement during the day and can make life more difficult in general.

Severe sleep apnea, if untreated, can lead to more health problems, and even death. If you suspect that you suffer from sleep apnea disorder it is very important to visit your doctor and maybe even consider taking part in a sleep study so that your sleeping problems can be diagnosed more accurately.