Snoring & Sleep Apnea

Snoring can be very annoying, and may disrupt or strain your relationships with your spouse , family members, or roommates. Snoring may also be a sign that you actually stop breathing at times during the night, and it can be very serious. Sleep apnea is even a more serious condition because the throat becomes blocked during the night, stopping breathing for short periods of time. If you have sleep apnea, your partner may hear you alternate between snoring very loudly, and being very quiet. You may even gasp or snort in your sleep. Some general symptoms of sleep apnea or snoring can be waking up tired, even after a full night's sleep, or waking up with a headache. Additionally, some people feel very sleepy, or fall asleep at inappropriate times; for instance, at work or while driving your car. There are many instances of irritability, with short temper and problems with concentration or memory.

Because sleep is repeatedly interrupted many times during the night, you may never get a full night's sleep with either snoring or sleep apnea. There are also indications that high blood pressure, with the attendant risk of heart attack and stroke, particularly early morning or during the night, may be attributed to snoring and sleep apnea. If you suspect that you have sleep apnea, or if your spouse notices that your stoppage of breathing, gasps, choking, snorting, and your attempts to start breathing again are very alarming, you should be in contact with the appropriate physician and/or sleep specialist. For help in finding the correct sleep specialist to help with these sleeping disorders, you may contact our office for referrals.

The cause of snoring is usually a narrow airway. That is because air travels faster through a slender tube than through a broad one. This rapidly moving air causes the soft tissues of the throat, for instance the tonsils, soft palate and uvula, to vibrate very rapidly. It is this vibration or swiftly moving air that is the sound of snoring. So the question is, "Why does snoring occur? There can be several areas involved such large tonsils, a long soft palate or uvula, and, in people who are overweight, excessively flabby tissue. Also, age has an important effect in that tissues tend to be slightly less taut and tight as we age. The most common cause of a narrowed airway is a tongue that relaxes too much during sleep, and gets relaxed back into the airway with each breath taken.

In the case of complete airway obstruction, such as occurs in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the airway obstruction won't clear until the brain's oxygen level falls low enough to partially awaken the sleeper. The tongue then returns to a normal position, and the airway seal is broken, usually with a loud gasp, which awakens the patient. We call this oxygen desaturation.

• Weight gain;
• Attention deficit and poor memory;
• Increased sick time;
• Poor job performance;
• Decreased interest in sex;
• Hypertension;
• Heart disease; and,
• Accidents (sometimes fatal) either on the job site or while driving.

OSA is directly associated with congestive heart failure and other heart diseases such as pulmonary hypertension, cardiac arrhythmia, ischemic heart disease and stroke. It is estimated that OSA may be responsible for 38,000 cardiovascular deaths per year in the United States alone and that as many as 95% of OSA sufferers may be undiagnosed .