What Is Sleep Apnea and How to Treat It?

 What is Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that occurs when someone stops breathing during sleep. It can happen many times throughout the night — 5 to 100 times per hour — and breathing pauses can last 10 to 20 seconds.

Other symptoms, including snoring and restless sleep, often accompany sleep apnea. Snoring can be loud enough to wake you up at night, and it may cause your partner to feel uncomfortable. If you have sleep apnea, you may also experience daytime fatigue and irritability due to a lack of restful sleep.

Sleep apnea can affect anyone at any age — men and women, children and teens, and even the elderly.

However, it's most common in adults over 60 years old.

Causes of Sleep Apnea

Here are the various risk factors:

Excessive Weight

One of the most common causes of sleep apnea is obesity.

Excess weight can increase the risk of developing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when there is an obstruction to airflow into or out of your airway during sleep.

The obstructions may be partial or complete, but they can be caused by enlarged tonsils or adenoids, enlarged adenoids or tonsils, or even obesity itself.

Family History

In some cases, family members may inherit a genetic predisposition to sleep apnea that they pass on to their children through the genes they pass on to their children's children.

This can be particularly true if any of your family members had a history of snoring or excessive daytime sleepiness.

Neck Circumference

Sleep apnea affects the neck tissues, which can cause your tongue to fall back into your throat when you sleep, making it difficult for you to breathe properly at night.

Therefore, if your neck circumference is smaller than average or is not growing due to a lack of growth hormone or other reasons, this may be a sign that you have some form of sleep apnea problem in your body.

Other Risk Factors Include:

●High blood pressure

●Diabetes

●Heart disease

●Smoking

●Poor nutrition

How to Prevent Sleep Apnea?

Sleep apnea is a medical condition that can cause you to stop breathing during sleep. It's estimated that 1 in every 15 Americans is diagnosed with sleep apnea, and much more aren't even aware of it.

You may not even know you have sleep apnea until you're diagnosed. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent this serious condition from affecting your health.

Here are some tips for preventing sleep apnea:

●Avoid alcohol and other drugs before bedtime. The combination of alcohol, sleeping pills, or other medications can be dangerous if you have sleep apnea.

●Avoid smoking cigarettes and eating large meals before bedtime. Both will reduce lung capacity and increase the risk of snoring and other symptoms of sleep apnea.

●Maintain good breathing habits while sleeping by avoiding heavy exercise before bed or sleeping on your stomach (which puts pressure on the throat).

●Practice relaxation techniques like deep breathing exercises while lying down to help improve oxygen levels in your bloodstream during sleep. This can help prevent problems with breathing at night that may lead to excess weight gain, heart disease, or diabetes later in life

CPAP Machines - The Best Sleep Apnea Treatment

What is a CPAP machine?

A CPAP machine is a device that helps you breathe more easily while you sleep. It's called a "machine" because it's an entirely mechanical device that uses pressure to force air into your lungs.

There are several different types of CPAP machines. Your doctor will recommend the one that's best for you based on your medical history, your sleep habits, and any other medical conditions you may have.

How Do They Work?

The fundamental concept behind CPAP sleep apnea machines is simple: It forces air into your lungs via a mask or nasal prongs. The air then flows through tubes connected to the mask or nasal prongs, which leads to your lungs where it mixes with oxygen from the atmosphere, allowing you to breathe normally again.

Conclusion

Sleep apnea can take a serious toll on the life quality of a sufferer and those in their immediate orbit, but it doesn't have to. Knowing about this disorder and the options for treatment can put you on the path toward better sleep and a happier existence overall. Do you have any effective sleep apnea treatments to suggest, reach out to us through the comment section