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Sleep Apnea Symptoms May Frequently Be Hard To Spot
Sleep apnea is a very common sleep disorder that affects more than 12 million Americans and is now as common as adult diabetes.
The commonest form of sleep apnea is obstructive sleep apnea which, as the name implies, results from an obstruction to the airways that produces difficulties with breathing. Additionally, there is another form of sleep apnea called central sleep apnea, in which the brain cannot control your breathing adequately during sleep. Finally, many people suffer from mixed sleep apnea, which is a combination of both obstructive and central forms of the condition.
Sleep apnea symptoms can appear at any time and, while they are most frequently seen in overweight men over 40, they can be seen in both men and women at any age and are being seen quite frequently today in children.
The most noticeable symptom of sleep apnea is snoring which is of course a hard symptom to spot yourself and generally has got to be pointed out by your sleeping partner. There can be a number of reasons for snoring and the presence of snoring is not in itself a sign that you have sleep apnea. It is true nevertheless that the majority of do snore.
The second most noticeable symptom is excessive tiredness during the day. Sleep apnea causes you to stop breathing many times throughout the night and the body's instinctive reaction to this is to arouse you just sufficiently for you to begin breathing again, but not enough so that you are aware that you are being awakened. The result is that your sleep is very light and often interrupted and you do not enjoy the deep sleep which the body needs to recharge its batteries. Consequently, over time, you find yourself becoming increasingly tired and sleepy during the day.
If sleep apnea is left untreated its affects will begin to become more and more 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 beginning to put on weight.
One less obvious symptom of sleep apnea is increased blood pressure which can produce various cardiovascular difficulties. This will be detected if you are one of the increasing number of individuals who are now monitoring their own blood pressure regularly at home but otherwise will not be spotted until you have a routine physical exam with your physician.
Another symptom is that of learning difficulties and difficultues with memory retention. Once again this is not something that is easy to detect yourself but others could well notice that you are not as fast on the uptake as you used to be.
Finally, some individuals with sleep apnea will notice a fall in sexual function and this may ultimately result in impotency.
As with the majority of medical conditions individual symptoms by themselves could be a sign of almost anything. But, if you begin to notice these symptoms alongside each onther then you ought to consider talking to your doctor and think about being tested for sleep apnea.
One word of caution though. Sleep apnea testing will normally involve referral to a sleep specialist, preferably one certified by the American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM), and could mean undergoing overnight sleep testing either in a special sleep laboratory or at home. These tests can often cost more than $1,000 and you should check with your health insurance company before you commit yourself to any program of sleep apnea testing.
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